sordid

[ sawr-did ]

adjective

1. morally ignoble or base; vile:

   sordid methods.

   Synonyms: depraved, degraded

   Antonyms: honorable

2. meanly selfish, self-seeking, or mercenary.

   Synonyms: stingy, close, tight, avaricious

   Antonyms: generous

3. dirty or filthy.

   Synonyms: foul, unclean

   Antonyms: clean

4. squalid; wretchedly poor and run-down:

   sordid housing.

sordid

/ ˈsɔːdɪd /

adjective

1. dirty, foul, or squalid
2. degraded; vile; base

   a sordid affair

3. selfish and grasping

   sordid avarice

Derived Forms

• ˈsordidness, noun
• ˈsordidly, adverb

Other Words From

• sordid·ly adverb
• sordid·ness noun
• un·sordid adjective
• un·sordid·ly adverb
• un·sordid·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sordid¹

1590–1600; from Latin sordidus, equivalent to sord(ēs) “dirt” + -idus -id ⁴

Word History and Origins

Origin of sordid¹

C16: from Latin sordidus, from sordēre to be dirty

Synonym Study

See mean ².

Example Sentences

Only time will tell whether the latest in the long and sordid history of youth abuse scandals will lead Texas to make real changes, redirecting resources away from prisons and into community-based rehabilitation and prevention programs.

From Washington Post

A Democratic Attorney General a few years earlier resigned in a sordid sex scandal.

From Time

Jane was far from alone in what prosecutors describe as a sordid web of abuse and misconduct.

From The Daily Beast

Alan Taylor, the distinguished University of Virginia historian, has spent his career upending the conventional story in favor of the more sordid and useful truth.

From Washington Post

That some of his cartoons from the 1950s are unacceptable to modern audiences, however, is perhaps less surprising than his sordid personal life.

From Ozy

The U.K. tabloids, as is their wont, have branded her “shameless,” “sordid,” and “the scourge of society.”

From The Daily Beast

Their relationship was messy and sordid and full of lies and jealousy and betrayal and backstabbing.

From The Daily Beast

Other micro-countries have more sordid, even criminal, histories.

From The Daily Beast

The sordid story of a female co-founder stripped of her title because she was harassed.

From The Daily Beast

Are there larger lessons to be learned from this whole sordid tale?

From The Daily Beast

When shall fond woman cease to give—when shall mean and sordid man be satisfied with something less than all she has to grant?

From Project Gutenberg

The expression fitted best the cruder, more sordid method of gaining possession of this woman.

From Project Gutenberg

By the light of the sordid knowledge that she had revealed to him he paid her back full tale.

From Project Gutenberg

With this political subjection one is reluctant to associate a more sordid kind of obligation.

From Project Gutenberg

It was amid such sordid troubles that Jess evolved the idea for her play.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• disreputable
• nasty
• shameful
• sleazy
• squalid
• vile