sloth

American  

[slawth, slohth] / slɔθ, sloʊθ /

noun

• sloths
  plural

1. habitual disinclination to exertion; laziness; indolence.

   Indifference, negligence, and sloth have no place in the classroom.

   Synonyms:

   idleness

2. any of several slow-moving, arboreal, tropical American edentates of the family Bradypodidae, having a long, coarse, grayish-brown coat often of a greenish cast caused by algae, and long, hooklike claws used in gripping tree branches while hanging or moving along in a habitual upside-down position.

3. a pack or group of bears.

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sloth British  

/ sləʊθ /

noun

1. any of several shaggy-coated arboreal edentate mammals of the family Bradypodidae, esp Bradypus tridactylus ( three-toed sloth or ai ) or Choloepus didactylus ( two-toed sloth or unau ), of Central and South America. They are slow-moving, hanging upside down by their long arms and feeding on vegetation

2. reluctance to work or exert oneself

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sloths
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sloth

First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English slowth; replacing Old English slǣwth, derivative of slǣw, variant of slāw “slow”; see slow, -th ¹

Explanation

If you lounge around in your bathrobe watching TV and ordering out for pizza, you'll get called a sloth. A sloth is actually a slow-moving, tree-dwelling mammal, but it has become a synonym for "lazybones." Slug also doubles as the name of an animal and a term for someone who is lazy, slow or lethargic. But with slug, the animal name probably morphed into the human application, whereas sloth has meant "lazy person" or "laziness" for a long time. In the Catholic Church sloth was categorized as one of the seven deadly sins.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sloth sloths

Two rare snow leopard cubs have been born at the park, alongside Himalayan monals and red deer, as well as Bru the capybara, Snoot the giant armadillo and Atty the sloth at Edinburgh Zoo.

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026

We have trained sloth and docility and are reaping what we have sown.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

There was also Drepanosaurus, a tree-dwelling reptile equipped with a large claw resembling that of a tree sloth, along with a smaller claw on its prehensile tail.

From Science Daily ● May 29, 2026

A spokesperson for the zoo said opening times of the sloth house would vary over the coming weeks.

From BBC ● May 12, 2026

Besides, he knew that Fanny would not have cared at all about that giant sloth head he had found in Punta Alta.

From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman

The California Department of Motor Vehicles, long synonymous with slow lines and bureaucracy — immortalized by the sloths of the Department of Mammal Vehicles in Disney’s “Zootopia” — is expanding its digital services.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

Most of the remains belonged to rodents, but researchers also recovered fossils from sloths, birds, reptiles, and many other animals, representing more than 50 species.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026

Baby sloths learn which leaves are safe to eat by sampling food directly from her mouth from about the age of two months.

From BBC ● May 12, 2026

Tree sloths once lived in the Caribbean but disappeared after humans arrived.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 3, 2026

He collected fragments from a pig-size guinea pig, armor plates from a tanklike armadillo, more elephantine bones from elephantine sloths, and crated and shipped them to England.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee