sordid
Americanadjective
-
dirty, foul, or squalid
-
degraded; vile; base
a sordid affair
-
selfish and grasping
sordid avarice
Related Words
See mean 2.
Other Word Forms
- sordidly adverb
- sordidness noun
- unsordid adjective
- unsordidly adverb
- unsordidness noun
Etymology
Origin of sordid
1590–1600; from Latin sordidus, equivalent to sord(ēs) “dirt” + -idus -id 4
Explanation
Describe a person's actions as sordid if they are so immoral or unethical that they seem dirty. Think of the worst parts of a bad soap opera! Sordid comes from the Latin word sordes, "dirt." Something that is filthy or run down such as a neighborhood or someone's living conditions can be called sordid, but it is usually used figuratively to mean immoral or dishonest. If you want to hear the sordid details of someone's actions, it's because they were extremely dishonest or immoral and also because they were supposed to be kept a secret.
Vocabulary lists containing sordid
1984
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Grade 12, List 2
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Heart of Darkness
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bridger was described by those who knew him as "always confident, courteous and charming" but when police seized his computer, a sordid secret was revealed.
From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026
For those outside the citadel—anti-boomer millennials, Gen Z, the underpaid and aggrieved—the Epstein revelations tell a sordid story they’ve long suspected.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 7, 2026
The best evidence of that sordid policy comes from Kissinger’s own National Security Council files, including near-verbatim transcripts of his face-to-face negotiations with communist leaders.
From Salon • Nov. 1, 2025
Yet the boy’s yearning for family outweighs his sordid circumstances.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 16, 2025
When he went to bed alone, he dodged flak over Bologna again in a dream, with Aarfy hanging over his shoulder abominably in the plane with a bloated sordid leer.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
