Word.ws English Dictionary

squalid

/ˈskwɒlɪd/

squalid adjective: extremely dirty and unpleasant.

Adjective

squalid (comparative squalider, superlative squalidest)

  1. Extremely dirty and unpleasant.
    • [...] Mythologists describe Pan the son of Mercury (who was the God of Speech) with the upper part like a man, and the lower like a beast, to signifie that Truth is fair and comely, but a Lye squalid and Deformed.1686, The Refin'd Courtier, or a Correction of several indecencies crept into civil conversation., London: Matthew Gilliflower
  2. Showing or characterized by a contemptible lack of moral standards.
    • a squalid attempt to buy votes
    • Minister, I hardly think that we can exploit our Sovereign by involving her in some might call a squalid vote-grubbing exercise.1980 March 3, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “The Official Visit”, in Yes, Minister, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne)

Noun

squalid (plural squalids)

  1. Any member of the family Squalidae of dogfish sharks.
    • Numerous diet studies on squalids have shown that members of this family tend to feed mainly on teleosts and cephalopods[…]2008, David A. Ebert, James A. Sulikowski, Biology of Skates, page 126

squalid meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

squalid in Tamil

இழிநிலையான, ஏழ்மைப்பட்ட அழுக்குடை தோற்றமுள்ள

squalid in Urdu

گندہ, غلیظ, نجس

squalid in Bengali

নোংরা, জঘন্য, হীন

squalid in Malayalam

അഴുക്കായ, ആഭാസമായ, നികൃഷ്ടമായ, വൃത്തികെട്ട
More languagesFewer languages
squalid in Kannada
ಹೊಲಸು, ಕೊಳಕು, ಹೊಲಸಾದ, ಕೊಳಕಾದ

Examples of squalid in a sentence

  • With something rank and squalid and seemingly spent with the character of death.
  • Meanwhile we went on with the lodging-house life—a squalid, eventless life of crushing boredom.
  • Some of the storefronts that sell dried clams and sea urchins and putrescible vegetables give it a kind of squalid character.”

All 10 example sentences with squalid

Forms of squalid

Adjective
comparativesqualider
superlativesqualidest
Noun
pluralsqualids

Origin of squalid

Learned borrowing from Latin squālidus, from squālēre (“to be rough or dirty”).

From taxonomic name Squalidae.

Words formed from squalid

Words that rhyme with squalid

Questions about squalid

What does squalid mean?
Squalid means extremely dirty and unpleasant.
What is squalid in Tamil?
Squalid in Tamil is இழிநிலையான, ஏழ்மைப்பட்ட அழுக்குடை தோற்றமுள்ள. See Squalid meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is squalid?
Squalid can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce squalid?
Squalid is pronounced /ˈskwɒlɪd/.

Words near squalid in the dictionary

  1. squalenoylated
  2. squalenoylation
  3. squalenoylations
  4. squalestatin
  5. squalestatins
  6. squalid
  7. squalider
  8. squalidest
  9. squalidities
  10. squalidity
  11. squalidly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: squalid (page history and authors); squalid (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); squalid (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); squalid (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); squalid (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); squalid (Kannada Wiktionary) (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)-Vealhurl-squalid.wav.

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