mucky

adjective

ˈmə-kē How to pronounce mucky (audio)
Definition of muckynext
1
as in muddy
full of or covered with soft wet earth the ground was very mucky after a night of pouring rain

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in filthy
not clean only too happy to remove those old mucky clothes

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of mucky When Mom spoke, her voice came out thick and mucky. — Kate Crane, Rolling Stone, 2 Apr. 2026 There are also mucky paw prints across the white wall. — Lydia Patrick, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 Nov. 2025 Three lakes in central Wisconsin's Adams County have been plagued with unsightly, mucky algae blooms for years, some of which have produced harmful toxins. — Madeline Heim, jsonline.com, 29 Aug. 2025 Despite thriving in shallow, weedy, mucky areas, snakeheads do not gravitate to decaying forage. — Joe Cermele, Outdoor Life, 20 July 2023 See All Example Sentences for mucky
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mucky
  1. muddy
  2. filthy
  3. dusty
  4. stained
  5. dirty
  6. blackened
  7. nasty
  8. black
Adjective
  • The committee isn’t fully aware of the muddy bog in which Taverner is currently sinking, but Lamb is starting to understand the shape of it.
    — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 14 Oct. 2026
  • But the terrain is treacherous with muddy roads and slippery rocks.
    — Paula Wethington, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of muddy
Adjective
  • Some orphans, their faces filthy, walked the stands hawking candy.
    — Dexter Filkins, New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Myriad violations, from food that should’ve been trashed weeks earlier to filthy equipment, befouled the state inspection of a West Miami-Dade supermarket this week.
    — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 11 Oct. 2026
Definition of filthy
Adjective
  • The production is a rattling junk drawer of circuit-bent thrift-store keyboards, dusty drum machines, and unintuitive loops, and KTO combines them into head-scratching, shouldn’t-work grooves.
    — Dash Lewis, Pitchfork, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Coming up from the intertidal, out of the dusty salt wind with his latest find under one arm, Tennent met a woman on her way down.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of dusty
Adjective
  • Set your iron to its lowest setting—no steam—and place the stained area between two paper towels or lint-free cloths.
    — Alexandra Emanuelli, Southern Living, 26 Sep. 2026
  • Pushing those briars aside revealed a single splinter of stained glass, bright as a ruby and warm as blood.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of stained
Adjective
  • The concentration of quaternary ammonia in the bucket with sanitizer is low (<100 ppm) and the water is visibly dirty.
    — NWA Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Many of the strongest initial applications are the dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks that go unfilled, contribute to injuries, and pull people away from higher-value judgment and exception handling.
    — Navin Chaddha, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of dirty
Adjective
  • The land, unfenced, abuts a bald blackened hillside that must be public land.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
Definition of blackened
Adjective
  • The polls still show a close-range contest, but in the increasingly nasty ad war, the spending suggests a far more lopsided fight.
    — Philip Elliott, Time, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Officers then cuffed the youngster as he was loaded into an ambulance and hospitalized for a fractured femur and a nasty bruise on his head, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by the teen’s dad, Mahmoud Saleh, in Brooklyn Federal Court.
    — John Annese, New York Daily News, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of nasty
Adjective
  • The march leader’s message echoed out from a black megaphone as the crowd pushed along Capitol Boulevard.
    — Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman, 19 Oct. 2026
  • The inside food contact surface of the ice machine had an accumulation of black organic buildup.
    — NWA Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of black

Browse Nearby Words

muck up
mucky
mud
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Mucky.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mucky. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All