sloth
/sləʊθ/US/slɔθ/
sloth noun: laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness.
Noun
sloth (countable and uncountable, plural sloths)
- Laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness.
- Hot summer days inspire a sense of sloth in me.
- Who having ſpilt much blood, and don much waſte / Subduing Nations, and achievd thereby / Fame in the World, high titles, and rich prey, / Shall change thir courſe to pleaſure, eaſe, and ſloth, / Surfet, and luſt, till wantonneſs and pride / Raiſe out of friendſhip hoſtil deeds in Peace.1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Synonyms:
- acedia, slothfulness
- Antonyms:
- diligence, liveliness
- Any member of species of the families Choloepodidae and Bradypodidae of herbivorous, arboreal South American mammals, noted for its slowness and inactivity.
- Any of the extinct group of ground sloths.
- A group of bears.
- "Thirteen!" interrupted Gavan in surprise. "Isn't that a large number for a sloth of bears?" "It certainly is," the hunter answered, "six is as many as I ever saw together. Maybe the tracks looked like a lot more. That happens.1919, Francis Rolt-Wheeler, The Boy with the U.S. Trappers, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, page 266
- One day there was a sloth of grizzly bears trying to catch salmon fish from the river2014, Stacey Marinaro, The First Unicorn, Lulu.com, page 12
- Synonyms:
- sleuth
Verb
sloth (third-person singular simple present sloths, present participle slothing, simple past and past participle slothed)
- To be idle; to idle (away time).
- He has been slothing this whole weekend.
- […] the most of professors are for imbezzeling, mispending and slothing away their time, their talents, their opportunities to do good in […]1676, John Bunyan, The Strait Gate, or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven, London: Francis Smith, page 69
sloth meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
sloth in Hindi
- laziness
- आलस्य ālasya
- mammal
- स्लॉथ slŏth
sloth in Tamil
- laziness
- சோம்பல் cōmpal
sloth in Marathi
- laziness
- आळस āḷas
sloth in Urdu
- laziness
- آلسی ālasya
More languagesFewer languages
- sloth in Bengali
- আলস্য alosśo, স্লথ sloth
- sloth in Telugu
- సోమరితనం sōmaritanaṁ
- sloth in Malayalam
- മടി maṭi, സ്ലോത്ത് slōttŭ
- sloth in Kannada
- ಸೋಮಾರಿತನ sōmāritana
- sloth in Punjabi
- ਆਲਸ ālas
- sloth in Gujarati
- આળસ āḷsa
- sloth in Sinhala
- කම්මැලිකම නිසා kammælikama nisā
- sloth in Assamese
- এলাহ elah, শ্লথ sloth
- sloth in Nepali
- आलस्य ālasya
- sloth in Tagalog
- katamaran
- sloth in Arabic
- كَسَل kasal, كَسْلَان kaslān
- sloth in Malay
- kemalasan, sifat malas
- sloth in Indonesian
- kemalasan, kukang, kungkang
- sloth in Persian
- تنبلی tanbali, تنبل tanbal
- sloth in Thai
- ความเกียจคร้าน kwaam-gìiat-kráan, สลอธ sà-lɔ́t, สโลธ sà-lôot
- sloth in Vietnamese
- lười
- sloth in Myanmar
- ပျင်းရိခြင်း pyang:ri.hkrang:, ဆလောက်ကောင် hca.laukkaung
Examples of sloth in a sentence
- Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears.1758, Benjamin Franklin, Preliminary Address to the Pennsylvania Almanac:
- Elliot's frank statement that "sloth and untidiness are indefensible" is a sign that the task will be tackled with vigour.1953 April, “Arrears of Station Maintenance”, in Railway Magazine, page 217:
- Man (head broken off) on horseback, leading three (technically a sloth) muzzled bears by square-linked chain.1879, Thomas Tindall Wildridge, The misereres of Beverley minster: a complete series of drawings; with notes on the plates and subject, J...
- That you endeavour carefully to please your Lady, Master or Mistress, be faithful, diligent and submissive to them, encline not to sloth or laze in bed, but rise early in a morning.1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 2:
Synonyms of sloth
Antonyms
Forms of sloth
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sloths |
| alternative form | sleuth |
| alternative form | sloath |
| alternative form | slowth |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sloths |
| present participle | slothing |
| past participle | slothed |
| past | slothed |
Origin of sloth
From Middle English slouthe, slewthe (“laziness”), from Old English slǣwþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-West Germanic *slaiwiþu, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþō (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).
Words formed from sloth
- forsloth
- ground sloth
- Microsloth
- native sloth
- sloth animalcule
- sloth bear
- slothen
- slothful
- slothlike
- sloth monkey
- slothy
- tree sloth
Phrases with sloth
Words that rhyme with sloth
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about sloth
- What does sloth mean?
- Sloth means laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness.
- What is sloth in Hindi?
- Sloth in Hindi is आलस्य (ālasya), स्लॉथ (slŏth). See Sloth meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use sloth in a sentence?
- Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears.
- What part of speech is sloth?
- Sloth can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sloth?
- Sloth is pronounced /sləʊθ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sloth?
- The plural of sloth is sloths.
Words near sloth in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sloth (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Knowledgeisking1-sloth.wav.
Cite this entry: “sloth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sloth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.