sordid
/ˈsɔɹdɪd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.99 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Distasteful, ignoble, vile, or contemptible.
adj
Example Sentences
- "The more hopelessly sordid and insensible he appeared, the greater became Mrs. Shelby's dread of his succeeding in recapturing Eliza and her child, and of course the greater her motive for detaining him by every female artifice."
- "The politician was involved in a sordid money laundering scheme."
- "They rented a sordid apartment together."
- "He rode slowly home along the deserted road, watching the stars come out in the clear violet sky. They flashed softly into the limpid heavens, like jewels let fall into clear water. They were a reproach, he felt, to a sordid world."
- "I know it sounds sordid but you'll be rewarded, when at last I've been given my dues."
- "It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race."
Etymology
Etymology tree Latin sordēs Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Italic *-ējō Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ēō Latin -eō Latin sordeō Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der. Proto-Italic *-iðos Latin -idus Latin sordidusder. Middle English sordid ▲ Latin sordiduslbor. French sordideder. English sordid From Middle English sordide, from Latin sordidus. Alternatively from French sordide.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: sordide, sordidus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsɔɹdɪd/
- British English: /ˈsɔː.dɪd/