squalor

[ skwol-er, skwaw-ler ]

noun

1. the condition of being squalid; filth and misery.

   Synonyms: wretchedness

   Antonyms: splendor

squalor

/ ˈskwɒlə /

noun

1. the condition or quality of being squalid; disgusting dirt and filth

Word History and Origins

Origin of squalor¹

1615–25; < Latin squālor dirtiness, equivalent to squāl ( ēre ) to be dirty, encrusted + -or -or ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of squalor¹

C17: from Latin

Example Sentences

Two years after Benbough took Taylor on the tour of boomtown squalor, homelessness and desperation, the housing crisis in San Diego had somehow gotten even worse.

From Voice of San Diego

San Diego refused federal housing assistance but the federal government grew so concerned about the homelessness and squalor that it insisted on building 3,500 units of housing in the Midway area.

From Voice of San Diego

Remember, if it wasn’t for Biles bringing her clout to the issue, these users would still be making women train in the buggy squalor of the Karolyi Ranch, the USOPC-sanctioned hellhole where they were molested.

From Washington Post

She had a big role in recasting downtown as a desirable destination after decades of squalor.

From Voice of San Diego

Critics dubbed these settings Greeneland, as if the squalor and trauma were pure invention.

From Washington Post

The overcrowded school where the family had sought refuge was a scene of despair and squalor.

From The Daily Beast

Money means more to you than just status or new toys; it is freedom, a way out of squalor for both you and your family.

From The Daily Beast

So it is with Just Send Me Word, a heroic love story amid the squalor and degradation of the Gulag.

From The Daily Beast

“It feels terrible to go back there and see so many people living in such squalor,” says Farmer.

From The Daily Beast

The once handsome young man was unrecognizable in his squalor.

From The Daily Beast

And over all these changes from grandeur to squalor, bent down the purple heavens with their unchanging splendour!

From Project Gutenberg

That life was one passed largely in dulness and perhaps comparative squalor.

From Project Gutenberg

Individual competition, in uncontrolled energy, reigned supreme amid almost incredible suffering and squalor.

From Project Gutenberg

And this poverty and squalor were not to be found only in one part of Poland, they seem to have been general.

From Project Gutenberg

The meanness, the squalor, the degradation of his morale and life are not discernible in his works.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• decay
• destitution
• starvation