sordid

[ sawr-did ]

/ ˈsɔr dɪd /

adjective

morally ignoble or base; vile: sordid methods.

meanly selfish, self-seeking, or mercenary.

dirty or filthy.

squalid; wretchedly poor and run-down: sordid housing.

Nearby words

sorcerous, sorcery, sord, sordello, sordes, sordid, sordino, sore, sore point, a, sore shin, sore throat

Origin of sordid

1590–1600; < Latin sordidus, equivalent to sord(ēs) dirt + -idus -id⁴

SYNONYMS FOR sordid

1 degraded, depraved. See mean².

2 avaricious, tight, close, stingy.

3 soiled, unclean, foul.

ANTONYMS FOR sordid

1 honorable.

2 generous.

3 clean.

Related forms

sor·did·ly, adverbsor·did·ness, nounun·sor·did, adjectiveun·sor·did·ly, adverb

un·sor·did·ness, noun

Can be confused

sordid sorted

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sordidly

It was atrociously, sordidly intimate, with its core in Harris, who when Miss Filbert had well gone from the room looked up.
Hilda|Sarah Jeanette Duncan
Carl's flying was as sordidly real as laying brick for a one-story laundry in a mill-town.
The Trail of the Hawk|Sinclair Lewis
Then the two candles guttered fitfully, sordidly, just as they had always done.
The Missourian|Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle
It is poorly, but not sordidly, furnished; and here and there are touches of taste, and some attempt at comfort.
The Prude's Progress|Jerome K. Jerome

He was a great libertine, given to unnatural crimes, and sordidly solicitous for plunder of the Waldenses.
Fox's Book of Martyrs|John Foxe

British Dictionary definitions for sordidly

sordid

/ (ˈsɔːdɪd) /

adjective

dirty, foul, or squalid

degraded; vile; basea sordid affair

selfish and graspingsordid avarice

Derived Forms

sordidly, adverbsordidness, noun

Word Origin for sordid

C16: from Latin sordidus, from sordēre to be dirty

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012