SORDID Synonyms: 192 Similar and Opposite Words

Q: How does the adjective 'sordid' differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of sordid are abject , ignoble , and mean . While all these words mean "being below the normal standards of human decency and dignity," sordid is stronger than all of these in stressing physical or spiritual degradation and abjectness. // a sordid story of murder and revenge

Q: Where would 'abject' be a reasonable alternative to 'sordid'?

While in some cases nearly identical to sordid , abject may imply degradation, debasement, or servility. // abject poverty

Q: When might 'ignoble' be a better fit than 'sordid'?

The synonyms ignoble and sordid are sometimes interchangeable, but ignoble suggests a loss or lack of some essential high quality of mind or spirit. // an ignoble scramble after material possessions

Q: When can 'mean' be used instead of 'sordid'?

The words mean and sordid can be used in similar contexts, but mean suggests small-mindedness, ill temper, or cupidity. // mean and petty satire

sordid

adjective

ˈsȯr-dəd

Definition of sordid

as in filthy

not clean he managed to rise above the sordid streets upon which he grew up

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in vile

not following or in accordance with standards of honor and decency a sordid affair involving bribery and corruption in high places

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective sordid differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of sordid are abject, ignoble, and mean. While all these words mean "being below the normal standards of human decency and dignity," sordid is stronger than all of these in stressing physical or spiritual degradation and abjectness.

a sordid story of murder and revenge

Where would abject be a reasonable alternative to sordid?

While in some cases nearly identical to sordid, abject may imply degradation, debasement, or servility.

abject poverty

When might ignoble be a better fit than sordid?

The synonyms ignoble and sordid are sometimes interchangeable, but ignoble suggests a loss or lack of some essential high quality of mind or spirit.

an ignoble scramble after material possessions

When can mean be used instead of sordid?

The words mean and sordid can be used in similar contexts, but mean suggests small-mindedness, ill temper, or cupidity.

mean and petty satire

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 sordid Hopefully, her death will serve as a reminder to the industry’s powers that be that young girls and women need to be heard, need to feel safe, and need to be shielded from its more sordid characters. — Marlow Stern, Variety, 17 Aug. 2026 Jodie is jealous of my friendship with these siblings and is trying to sabotage it by doing background checks on them to reveal any sordid thing that has happened to them or their kids. — R. Eric Thomas, Mercury News, 11 Aug. 2026 For the sixth consecutive season, one of the WNBA’s legacy franchises has come apart at the seams, tattering the franchise’s three-championship history with a sordid record that mandates a clear response. — Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2026 Perhaps her death has haunted her legacy so tenaciously not just because of its sordid details, but because her art is so imbued with a swirl of both impermanence and vitality. — Eliza Goodpasture, ARTnews.com, 15 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for sordid

Recent Examples of Synonyms for sordid

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

Prosecutors reveal Ha used anonymous social media accounts to send dozens of vile antisemitic threats, leaking the victim’s home address and forcing their family to flee.

— Staff, FOXNews.com, 15 Oct. 2026
New additions include singer Tank, who plays vile music exec Eric Cropper and Jax’s main client, Beauty in Black star Taylor Polidore Williams as Eric’s wife Brooke, La La Anthony as Eric’s first wife Melina, and then Megan Good as Regina Harris.

— Ronda Racha Penrice, HollywoodReporter, 14 Oct. 2026

Definition of vile

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

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 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

And in a world increasingly populated by people who are absolutely certain that everyone who disagrees with them is either ignorant or immoral, our universities could use considerably more of all three.

— Rabbi Bruce D. Forman, Sun Sentinel, 13 Oct. 2026
Central to the exhibition is the tension between the honorable and the immoral, the appealing and the revolting.

— News Desk, Artforum, 12 Oct. 2026

Definition of immoral

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sorcery

sordid

sordidness

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“Sordid.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sordid. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of sordid

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