# sordid

Pronunciation: US say "SOR-did" /ˈsɔɹdɪd/; UK say "SAW-did" /ˈsɔː.dɪd/

## Adjective

1. Low and vile in character, in a way that is distasteful or deserves contempt.
   - Simple: So low and nasty that it is unpleasant and people look down on it.
   - _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._
2. Dirty, or wretchedly filthy and neglected.
   - Simple: Dirty, or very dirty and falling apart.
   - _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._
3. Greedily eager for money or gain, and mean about spending or sharing it.
   - Simple: Wanting money very much and not wanting to spend it or share 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._
5. In biological description, having a dull, dingy color rather than a clean, bright one.
   - Simple: Used in science about living things to mean dull in color.
   - _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._
4. Degrading in a moral sense, so that taking part in it lowers and shames a person.
   - Simple: Shameful and wrong in a way that makes people morally worse.
   - _Blackmail is a sordid business, and she wanted no part of it._
   - _He quit politics, sick of the sordid deals struck behind closed doors._

## Origin

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

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/sordid (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).