Word.ws English Dictionary

squammy

UK/ˈskweɪm.mi/US/ˈskwɑːm.mi/

squammy adjective: synonym of squamous (“Covered with, made of, or resembling scales; scaly.”).

Adjective

squammy (comparative squammier, superlative squammiest)

  1. (dated) Synonym of squamous (“Covered with, made of, or resembling scales; scaly.”).
  2. (Philippines, colloquial, slang) trashy; classless; unrefined; crass; uncultured; vulgar; uncouth (lacking refinement)

Synonyms of squammy

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

Forms of squammy

comparativesquammier
superlativesquammiest
alternative Philippines (slang)skwammy

Origin of squammy

From squamous + -y, where -ous was elided to extract the root. The reduplicated ⟨m⟩ is akin to runny, brimmy, etc. The Philippine slang sense is a semantic loan from Tagalog iskuwater, itself from Philippine English squatter (“poor vagrant; illegal informal settler”) due to resemblance of the first syllable. Compare Tagalog iskuwami.

Words that rhyme with squammy

Questions about squammy

What does squammy mean?
Squammy means synonym of squamous (“Covered with, made of, or resembling scales; scaly.”).
What part of speech is squammy?
Squammy is an adjective.
How do you pronounce squammy?
Squammy is pronounced /ˈskweɪm.mi/ (UK).

Words near squammy in the dictionary

  1. squamiferous
  2. squamiform
  3. squamigerous
  4. Squamish
  5. Squamish-Lillooet
  6. squammy
  7. squamo-
  8. squamoadenocarcinoma
  9. squamoadenocarcinomas
  10. squamocellular
  11. squamocolumnar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: squammy (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.

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