squalid
Americanadjective
-
foul and repulsive, as from lack of care or cleanliness; neglected and filthy.
- Synonyms:
- unclean
-
wretched; miserable; degraded; sordid.
adjective
-
dirty and repulsive, esp as a result of neglect or poverty
-
sordid
Synonym Usage
See dirty.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of squalid
1585–95; < Latin squālidus dirty, equivalent to squāl ( ēre ) to be dirty, encrusted + -idus -id 4
Explanation
Squalid things appear neglected, or morally repulsive in nature, like a frat house after a semester of hard partying and zero cleanup. Squalid comes from the Latin word squalere, meaning to “be covered with a rough, scaly layer.” A few word evolutions later and we have squalid, a word that describes something distasteful, dirty, unattractive, and as unkempt in appearance as the dry, scaly skin of an armadillo, or a room filled with pizza boxes, flickering light bulbs, and stained wallpaper. Squalid behavior is dirty, too, like cheating on a test and lying about it.
Vocabulary lists containing squalid
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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.
More than 80 animals were found living in "squalid conditions"
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
In 2014, he won a Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting for an investigation into abusive landlords and squalid conditions in publicly subsidized housing for Tampa’s homeless.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
After three years of devastating conflict, about 80% of Gaza’s roughly 2.1 million people are now displaced, with about half of them living in squalid, rodent-infested encampments where they are reliant on humanitarian aid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Thousands of Rohingya have tried in recent years to leave Cox's Bazar, where more than a million refugees forced to flee war-torn Myanmar's Rakhine state live in squalid conditions.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
It had never been planned; it had grown piecemeal, with past and present overlapping at every spot, and the final effect was one of jumbled and squalid grandeur.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
