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

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

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

“Water is sour, the air is lonely here / And all the noises of this natural shire / From stable or from sty are not enough,” Mr. Howard wrote in one poem.

From Washington Post • Apr. 1, 2022

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

It was a vile town, a sty, small and mean and rank with the odors of pig shit and rotting fish.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin