sordid

[sawr-did]

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.

Origin of sordid

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

Related formssor·did·ly, adverbsor·did·ness, nounun·sor·did, adjectiveun·sor·did·ly, adverbun·sor·did·ness, noun

Can be confusedsordid sorted

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.

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

Examples from the Web for sordidly

Historical Examples of sordidly

The spirit of the place has not changed; it is as it was, splendidly and sordidly commercial.
Literature and Life
William Dean Howells
"Our peasants live too sordidly," observed a Frenchman to me a day or two later.
East of Paris
Matilda Betham-Edwards
Sordidly mean, ostentatiously prodigal, filthily intemperate and affectedly refined.
Masques & Phases
Robert Ross
Nor by alternate shreds of light; Sordidly shifting hands with shades and night.
In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV)
Harrison S. Morris
Then the two candles guttered fitfully, sordidly, just as they had always done.
The Missourian
Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

British Dictionary definitions for sordidly

sordid

adjective

dirty, foul, or squalid
degraded; vile; basea sordid affair
selfish and graspingsordid avarice

Derived Formssordidly, 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

Word Origin and History for sordidly

sordid

adj.

early 15c., "festering," from Latin sordidus "dirty, filthy, foul, vile, mean, base," from sordere "be dirty, be shabby," related to sordes "dirt, filth," from PIE *swrd-e-, from root *swordo- "black, dirty" (cf. Old English sweart "black"). Sense of "foul, low, mean" first recorded 1610s. Related: Sordidly; sordidness.