How to use messy in a sentence
40 example sentences · adjective
Messy means in a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly. Example: “Jim ran his fingers through his messy brown hair.”
Examples of messy by meaning
adjectiveIn a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly.
- a messy office
- Jim ran his fingers through his messy brown hair.
- Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art.2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2023
adjectiveProne to causing mess.
- He is the messiest person I've ever met.
adjectiveDifficult or unpleasant to deal with.
- a messy divorce
- The practice of replying to invitations, let alone actually showing up to parties as promised, has become as antiquated as the chimney sweep, and much messier.2008 May 4, Alexandra Jacobs, “Blame the Messager”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 18 Dec 2021
adjectiveArgumentative, spreading spreading gossip, talking behind someone's back.
- They keep starting fights with Sam, they're so messy.
More sentences with messy
- A pragmatist would never plant such a messy tree, but I like its flowers.From the entry pragmatist
- She preferred taquitos to regular tacos because she found them less messy.From the entry taquito
- That messy project you gave me can take a bus ticket to Nopeville.From the entry Nopeville
- One of the students is really messy — his worksheets are always falling out of his duotang.From the entry duotang
- Their messy breakup culminated in a restraining order.From the entry culminate
- Would do hyper messy too, I do wanna ask if you are ok with diaper stuffing?2025 September 3, @poppykobold.bsky.social, Bluesky. From the entry diaper stuffing
- Reynders brushed a messy lock of orange hair out of her eyes for the dozenth time.2023 September 24, HarryBlank, “Working Wonders”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 25 May 2024. From the entry wringer
- And, out of practice, she got mortalled, traipsing home late and messy.2022, Tina Baker, Nasty Little Cuts. From the entry mortalled
- I think everybody’s lives can be a bit messy at times.2022, Alexa Martin, Better than Fiction, Berkley Romance, →ISBN, page 115. From the entry hot girl summer
- "So I guess it was as messy as Dan said, hunh?"2011, Ellyn E. Hugus, Symphonic Storm: Book 1: Peace Keepers, page 31. From the entry hunh
- Potentially, “awayness” is a messy category for analyzing a people's behavior.2006, Jill B. R. Cherneff, Eve Hochwald, Visionary observers: anthropological inquiry and education. From the entry awayness
- Although bubblejet technology sounds messier than inkjet technology, bubblejets typically produce better images than inkjets.2003, Michael Pastore, A+ certification study guide. From the entry bubblejet
- What one part of the polycule says about another could have huge, messy ripple effects throughout the whole group.2024 January 16, Allison P. Davis, “What Does a Polycule Actually Look Like?”, in New York Magazine. From the entry polycule
- While some see it as a harmless way to describe a messy phase, some have suggested the phrase is offensive.2022 April 2, Kalhan Rosenblatt, “'Goblin mode' is becoming part of people's everyday vocabulary. Language and meme experts share why.”…. From the entry goblin mode
- After all, no sealant or finish is necessary in the encaustic medium, and shellac is stinky, caustic and messy.2019, Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch, Encaustic Workshop, Penguin, →ISBN, page 90. From the entry encaustic
- The mulberry puts forth its messy clusters of achenes.2018, Richard Powers, The Overstory, Vintage (2019), page 37. From the entry achene
- Smol doggos with cute messy hair from the rain.2017 September 28, “Nope/Dope”, in The Rocky Mountain Collegian, page 8. From the entry smol
- Dip chilled krembos in the chocolate (or just get messy and pour it on top) and sprinkle with extra pistachios.2016, Amy Kritzer, “[Latkes, Egg Creams, Kugel, and More!] Pistachio-Chocolate Krembos”, in Sweet Noshings: New Twists on Traditional…. From the entry krembo
- Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid and unique to be a science, too rigorous to be an art.2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847. From the entry output
- It's kind of messy, but lots of fun.2010, Joe Knotts, The Green Bear Stories, Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 69. From the entry goosh
- Messy, those poor sickees staggered around the ship, easily identifiable from their sponged-off shirts 86 blouses and ashen complexions.2007, Ramon Carver, Best and Worst Travels, page 2. From the entry sickee
- For a hideous instant, he thought the reserve lines would wrap around the mains and he’d repeat Komarov’s messy death.2007 September 5, David S. Michaels, Daniel Brenton, “March 25, 1969: Over the Gobi Desert, Outer Mongolia”, in Red Moon, Barrington…. From the entry flumpf
- Installation and configuration are the twin devils of computing, surpassed only by the messy demons of uninstallation and upgrade.2002 January 31, Ashley Dunn, “Simplicity Should Be the Mantra”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times…. From the entry uninstallation
- Unscrambling the dogpile of objects can be messy.1993, Christopher G. Jones, “Object-Oriented Analysis with CASE”, in Computer-aided Software Engineering, →ISBN, page 348. From the entry dogpile
- Of course, they couldn’t use their hands to eat or drink, and so food and liquids made their faces humongously messy.1981, Michael Moynahan, How the Word Became Flesh: Story Dramas for Worship and Religious Education, Resource Publications, Inc., →ISBN…. From the entry humongously
- Avoid “5 o’clock shadow” — that messy afternoon beard-growth.1942 November 30, Life, page 96. From the entry five o'clock shadow
- Quarantine had thrown a new wrench "do not perceive me" discourse, but trans people have arguably always had a messy relationship to being perceived.2022 March 1, Charlie Markbreiter, “"Other Trans People Make Me Dysphoric": Trans Assimilation and Cringe”, in The New Inquiry. From the entry clock
- Some people have argued that it is our membership of the European Union which helped create the messy privatisation and everything that ensued.2019 October 23, Christian Wolmar, “It's not the EU's fault that privatisation has broken down”, in Rail, page 49. From the entry privatisation
- Schreiner, a haggardly young man with messy hair and facial scruff who looked like he hadn’t slept, sat hunched over as Topp spoke.2014 February 15, Trevor Wilhelm, “Anxiety attack delays justice for man guilty of assault: One of two victims is 81”, in The Windsor…. From the entry haggardly
- Very messy but taste shiok right?2014-07-30, Owl International, “Singapore, We Are Ok! (National Day Song 2014)”, in YouTube, retrieved 01 Nov 2015. From the entry machiam
- This is an evocation of the messy multiplicity and ambiguity of consumers and outsiders, in the warm chaosmos and on the far fringes of Birdland.2014, Douglas Brownlie, Paul Hewer, Mark Tadajewski, Expanding Disciplinary Space: On the Potential of Critical Marketing, →ISBN. From the entry chaosmos
- Friday night in the Fargo Theatre, bringing her bad singing, messy lipstick and other quirks to the stage for all her “Mirfandas.”2014 August 28, Jack Dura, “Editor’s Choice: Something for Everyone this Labor Day Weekend”, in The Spectrum, volume 118, number 1…. From the entry Mirfanda
- The kind of Scots we used was messy; it was going into all sorts of odd lexical corners and stirring these up with four-letter words.2009, Attila Dósa, Robert Crawford, “Robert Crawford: The Emphatic Soul”, in Beyond Identity: New Horizons in Modern Scottish Poetry…. From the entry sharawadgi
Meaning of messy
- adjective In a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly.
- adjective Prone to causing mess.
- adjective Difficult or unpleasant to deal with.
Questions about messy in a sentence
- How do you use messy in a sentence?
- Messy is used as an adjective. For example: “Jim ran his fingers through his messy brown hair.”
- What is a short sentence with messy?
- “a messy divorce”
- What does messy mean?
- Messy means in a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: messy (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use messy in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/messy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
