Word.ws English Dictionary

slowth

UK/sləʊθ/US/slɔθ/

slowth is the alternative form of sloth.

Meaning of sloth

Noun

sloth (countable and uncountable, plural sloths)

  1. (uncountable) 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.
    Synonyms:
    acedia, slothfulness
  2. (especially) Any member of species of the families Choloepodidae and Bradypodidae of herbivorous, arboreal South American mammals, noted for its slowness and inactivity.
  3. Any of the extinct group of ground sloths.
  4. (collective, countable, rare) 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
    Synonyms:
    sleuth

See all 5 meanings of sloth

Noun (1)

slowth (uncountable)

  1. Slow economic growth.
    • Slowth lies behind the difficulties each of us faces in achieving the standard of living we desire.1980, Martin Kupferman, Maurice D. Levi, Slowth, the changing economy and how you can successfully cope
    • Unfortunately, with slowth it becomes progressively more difficult to escape from the rigours of scarcity1984, George Lermer, Thomas J. Courchene, Probing leviathan: an investigation of government in the economy

Noun (2)

slowth (uncountable)

  1. The state or condition of being slow; slowness.
    • Good old-fashioned slowth is being looked at with new interest, as is exemplified by such old antiques as the old Douglas Skyraider. And, of course the helicopter, slowest of all, so slow you can easily make one go backwards.1966, Flying Magazine
    • The tempo of the introduction, which Mahler has marked to be slow and dragging, is of the utmost "slowth" (if I may use such a word to denote the creepy, crawling atmosphere thus created).1983, High fidelity Musical America

Origin of slowth

From Middle English slouthe, slewthe, from Old English slǣwþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþō (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow + -th. Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).

Blend of slow + growth.

Recoinage from slow + -th (abstract nominal suffix).

Words that rhyme with slowth

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about slowth

What does slowth mean?
Slowth means slow economic growth.
What is slowth the alternative form of?
Slowth is the alternative form of sloth.
What part of speech is slowth?
Slowth is a noun.
How do you pronounce slowth?
Slowth is pronounced /sləʊθ/ (UK).

Words near slowth in the dictionary

  1. slows out
  2. slows up
  3. slowsome
  4. slowtard
  5. slowtards
  6. slowth
  7. slowwitted
  8. slowworm
  9. slowworms
  10. Sloyan
  11. Sloyans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: slowth (page history and authors); 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:

Cite this entry: “slowth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slowth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.