sty

¹ American  

[stahy] / staɪ /

noun

• sties
  plural

1. a pen or enclosure for swine; pigpen.

2. any filthy place or abode.

3. a place of bestial debauchery.

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verb (used with object)

stied, stying

1. to keep or lodge in or as if in a sty.

verb (used without object)

stied, stying

1. to live in or as if in a sty.

sty ² American  

[stahy] / staɪ /

Or stye

noun

Ophthalmology.

• sties
  plural

1. a circumscribed abscess caused by bacterial infection of the glands on the edge of the eyelid; hordeolum.

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sty British  

/ staɪ /

noun

1. a pen in which pigs are housed and fed

2. any filthy or corrupt place

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verb

1. to enclose or be enclosed in a sty

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sty¹

First recorded before 1000; (for the noun) Middle English; Old English stī- (as in stī-fearh “sty-pig”), probably identical to stig- in stigweard steward; cognate with Old Norse stī, Dutch stijg, German Steige

Origin of sty²

First recorded in 1610–20; by false division of Middle English styanye, from styan ( Old English stīgend “sty,” literally, “rising”) + ye eye ), misread as sty on eye

Explanation

A sty is an outdoor home for a pig. If your sister keeps her clothes in heaps on her bedroom floor and leaves empty cereal bowls on every available surface, your mother might complain that her room is a sty. An actual pig sty, also called a pigpen, is typically a fenced-in area of mud or dirt. Although pigs aren't particularly dirty animals, they do need water or mud to stay cool, and they are naturally inclined to chew plants and root through dirt with their noses. The word sty is also commonly used to describe extremely messy human homes. Sty can also mean a swollen infection of the eye.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sty sties stied

The place was a sty to begin with and only becomes more squalid after Mick, Keith and Brian move in.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Three piglets on the loose from an abandoned sty were foraging in the city street.

From Reuters ● Sep. 16, 2022

“Once I jumped in that sty," he said, "I was going to be stuck wrestling in there for a while.”

From Washington Post ● Dec. 20, 2018

They stashed him away in a pig sty, but it kept him alive, as enemy soldiers continued their search for Americans.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 10, 2018

"In a pig sty an ass is a ham."

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

Not all battery sites under 5 megawatts are in urban or suburban areas, but developers say the smaller sties are more likely than larger ones to be closer to population centers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Many notable NFL draft experts and web sties projected Banks to go either late in the first round or early in the second.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2023

Physical sales came down but revenue from streaming sties like Spotify and Apple Music have gone up, earning the industry nearly £2bn.

From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2023

The protesters were bussed to various sties where Zhang said they were forced to sign a letter guaranteeing they would not gather anymore.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 10, 2022

Dark hearts of oak he split and trimmed for a high palisade around it, and built twelve sties adjoining in this yard to hold the livestock.

From "The Odyssey" by Homer

In Maye, how all those his scholers loking vpon him, he by his owne vertue and mighte, stied vp into the heauens.

From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 06 Madiera, the Canaries, Ancient Asia, Africa, etc. by Richard Hakluyt

Examples: "But like the hell hounde thou waxed fall furious, expressing thy malice when thou to honour stied."

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown