Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Morally degraded or dishonorable: Describes actions, situations, or environments characterized by a lack of ethical standards, often involving greed, corruption, or vice.
   • Dirty, squalid, or filthy: Describes something physically repulsive, neglected, and extremely unclean.
   • Meanly avaricious or mercenary: Describes a greedy, selfish focus on money or material gain, often in a contemptible way.

Usage Examples

• Describing moral degradation:
  • The journalist uncovered the sordid details of the corruption scandal.
  • He was involved in a sordid affair that ruined his reputation.
• Describing physical filth and squalor:
  • They lived in sordid poverty, surrounded by garbage and decay.
  • The novel describes the sordid conditions of the 19th-century slums.
• Describing greedy, mercenary behavior:
  • His motives were purely sordid, driven by a desire for wealth at any cost.
  • The sordid avarice of the corporation led to the exploitation of workers.

Advanced Usage

• "sordidness" (noun): The state or quality of being sordid.
  • The sordidness of the political deal shocked the public.
• "sordidly" (adverb): In a sordid manner.
  • The business was sordidly conducted, with bribes and threats.

Variants and Related Words

• Squalid: Very dirty and unpleasant, especially as a result of poverty or neglect. (Often overlaps with the physical sense of 'sordid').
• Seamy: Morally degraded and sordid. (Often used in "the seamy side of life").
• Seedy: Dirty, squalid, or morally questionable.
• Sleazy: Dishonest, immoral, or low in quality; shabby.

Synonyms

• Squalid: Filthy, run-down, neglected.
• Seamy: Unpleasant, disreputable, corrupt.
• Dishonorable: Disreputable, shameful, ignoble.
• Avaricious: Greedy, grasping, mercenary.
• Foul: Disgusting, vile, repulsive.

Antonyms

• Honorable: Respectable, noble, upright.
• Clean: Spotless, pure, hygienic.
• Virtuous: Moral, ethical, righteous.
• Generous: Unselfish, charitable, magnanimous.

Idioms and Common Phrases

• "sordid details": The unpleasant, often morally repugnant, specifics of a situation.
  • The newspaper refused to publish the sordid details of the celebrity's divorce.
• "sordid affair": A secret romantic or business relationship that is considered morally shameful.
  • The mayor's career ended because of a sordid affair with a lobbyist.

Adjective

1. meanly avaricious and mercenary
   • sordid avarice
   • sordid material interests
2. foul and run-down and repulsive
   • a flyblown bar on the edge of town
   • a squalid overcrowded apartment in the poorest part of town
   • squalid living conditions
   • sordid shantytowns
3. unethical or dishonest
   • dirty police officers
   • a sordid political campaign
4. morally degraded
   • a seedy district
   • the seamy side of life
   • sleazy characters hanging around casinos
   • sleazy storefronts with...dirt on the walls- Seattle Weekly
   • the sordid details of his orgies stank under his very nostrils- James Joyce
   • the squalid atmosphere of intrigue and betrayal