DictionaryAI

sordid

adjective
SOR-did/ˈsɔɹdɪd/UKSAW-did/ˈsɔː.dɪd/

Formssordider, sordidest

5 meanings of sordid

Practice

  1. 1
    distastefuladjective
    Low and vile in character, in a way that is distasteful or deserves contempt.

    Reporters dug up every sordid detail of the couple's bitter divorce.

    To her he was a sordid, sneering little man, and she could barely stand to be in the same room with him.

    Similarsleazy, seedy, vile, squalid, base

    Oppositenoble, honorable, admirable

  2. 2
    filthy placeadjective
    Dirty, or wretchedly filthy and neglected.

    They rented a sordid room above a bar, with peeling walls and a broken sink.

    The sordid alley behind the market reeked of rotting fruit.

    Similarsqualid, filthy, dirty, seedy, grimy

    Oppositeclean, spotless

  3. 3
    greedyadjective
    Greedily eager for money or gain, and mean about spending or sharing it.

    The landlord was a sordid old miser who counted every penny of the rent twice.

    His motives were entirely sordid: he courted her only for her family's fortune.

    Similarmercenary, grasping, greedy, avaricious

    Oppositegenerous, selfless

  4. 4
    adjective
    Degrading in a moral sense, so that taking part in it lowers and shames a person.

    Blackmail is a sordid business, and she wanted no part of it.

    He quit politics, sick of the sordid deals struck behind closed doors.

    Similarsleazy, shameful, degrading, squalid, seedy

    Oppositehonorable, respectable

    Note

    Its natural partner is business: a sordid business is something shameful to take part in, however profitable. Willa Cather's The Bohemian Girl (1912) sets the clear stars against a sordid world, and Be Prepared, in The Lion King (1994), admits that its scheme sounds sordid. Where the "distasteful" meaning finds a thing unpleasant to look at, this one says it lowers whoever takes part.

Less common meaning

  1. 5
    dingy coloradjective
    In biological description, having a dull, dingy color rather than a clean, bright one.

    The flowers are sordid white, never the clear white of the related species.

    In dried specimens the hairs on the leaf's underside look sordid and matted.

    Similardingy, dull

    Oppositebright, clear

    Note

    Biological descriptions use it with no moral weight at all, simply for a dingy, dirty-looking tint. It can stand alone or join another term: sordid white, or sordid-tomentulose in Paul Carpenter Standley's Trees and Shrubs of Mexico (1926), where leaves are covered beneath with fine, dingy down.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English sordide, from Latin sordidus; alternatively, from French sordide.