sultry
Americanadjective
-
oppressively hot and close or moist; sweltering.
a sultry day.
- Synonyms:
- humid, stifling, oppressive
-
oppressively hot; emitting great heat.
the sultry sun.
-
characterized by or associated with sweltering heat.
sultry work in the fields.
-
characterized by or arousing passion.
sultry eyes.
adjective
-
(of weather or climate) oppressively hot and humid
-
characterized by or emitting oppressive heat
-
displaying or suggesting passion; sensual
sultry eyes
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sultry
Explanation
Stifling, humid and downright oppressive, sultry is an adjective that has everything to do with sweltering heat and a definite need for a tall glass of iced tea. You know how movies about the Old South always show people wilting in the shade of their front porches, mopping their damp brows? Well that's because of the sultry summer weather. A sultry atmosphere is a thick, almost swampy feeling. And all that heavy heat can certainly get passions stirring — "a sultry look" is one that happens to express steamy desire.
Vocabulary lists containing sultry
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Term-ometer: Synonyms for "Hot"
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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
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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.
See Examples For:
After an opening salvo of rap-centric tracks, Swim was moody and sultry, with flowing choreography that underscored its message of persevering in choppy waters.
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2026
Porter originally wrote it as a sultry bolero, but Sinatra and Riddle supercharge it into one of the singer’s most celebrated uptempo showcases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
Even masala chai would lose its signature, sultry kick.
From Salon ● Jan. 25, 2026
So does Althouse, who has a deep, sultry radio-announcer voice and often pauses momentarily to ruminate deeply before answering questions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2025
During the autumn the sultry air made us tired but not too tired.
From "Kira-Kira" by Cynthia Kadohata
Van Morrison’s Moondance, despite being constantly wrung out by classic-rock radio and adult-contemporary stations alike, still evokes the possibility offered by summertime’s shorter, sultrier nights.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 14, 2015
The strip of blue sky was curtained over again, and all was dismal as before, though it grew sultrier every moment; and now and then a distant mutter shook the air to westward.
From Westward Ho!, or, the voyages and adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the county of Devon, in the reign of her most glorious majesty Queen Elizabeth by Charles Kingsley
The air was sultrier than ever, heavy with fragrance and enervating with forebodings of a storm.
From A Transient Guest and Other Episodes by Edgar Saltus
Then they turned back and the clouds were sultrier, low on the horizon, and the velvety darkness fell more thickly, like warm snow, and the ravelled tjemaras were fuller and blacker than before.
From The Hidden Force A Story of Modern Java by Louis Couperus
One evening it seemed hotter and sultrier than ever.
From Our Home in the Silver West A Story of Struggle and Adventure by Gordon Stables
Shout out to future “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson, who joined Journey for “Raised on Radio” and proceeded to lay down the slinkiest, sultriest, funkiest bass line the band had ever known.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The three hottest years in the past century have come in the past decade, and 1995 was the sultriest on record.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was one of the sultriest days of August, but the air was vividly fresh, and the sun, with all the strength of the climate of Italy, was unoppressive.
From Pencillings by the Way Written During Some Years of Residence and Travel in Europe by N. Parker Willis
It is the hour of noon; and the sun, shining down from the zenith, permeates the atmosphere with his sultriest rays.
From The Wild Huntress Love in the Wilderness by Mayne Reid
Consequently I gasped out something about its being the sultriest 47th of August in eighteen years, and plumped back into a chair opposite him.
From R. Holmes & Co. by John Kendrick Bangs
Definitions 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.
