Word.ws English Dictionary

sticky

/ˈstɪki/

sticky adjective: tending to stick; able to adhere via the drying of a viscous substance.

Adjective

sticky (comparative stickier, superlative stickiest)

  1. Tending to stick; able to adhere via the drying of a viscous substance.
    • Is this tape sticky enough to stay on that surface?
    • Particularly sticky books are cleaned with methylated spirits.2016 June 5, Thomas Manch, “CuriousCity: What happens to my library books when I return them?”, in Stuff, archived from the original on 04 May 2019
    Synonyms:
    claggy
  2. Difficult, awkward.
    • This is a sticky situation. We could be in this for weeks if we're not careful.
    • GCN is not just another clipboard of polite press releases. GCN is the sticky questions, the sweet moments, and the dirty stories that make up our lives.1989 December 24, Abe Rybeck, “Liberation Without Permission, Pleasure Without Apology”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 24, page 5
  3. Of a death: unpleasant, grisly.
    • Salmond studied medieval Scottish history as well as economics at university so he cannot say he has not had fair warning – it was even more turbulent and bloody than England at that time – and plenty of Scotland's kings and leaders came to a sticky end. If it happens this time, it won't be dull.2014 September 8, Michael White, “Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC...
  4. Of weather: hot and windless and with high humidity, so that people feel sticky from sweating.
    • The baby was due in December and the hot, sticky August weather was making Jane uncomfortable.2008, Robert K. Fitts, Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball
    Synonyms:
    close
  5. Mawkish, sentimental.
    • Love you and miss you and wish you all the sticky things one wishes at this season for someone one loves.1981 December 27, “Robert Bobbie Bob, Inc (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 23, page 18
  6. Tending to stay the same; resistant to change.
    • a sticky price; sticky wages
  7. (informal) Persistent.
    • We should make the printing direction sticky so the user doesn't have to keep setting it.
  8. Appearing on all virtual desktops.
  9. (Internet) Fixed at the top of the list of topics or threads so as to keep it in view.
  10. (Internet) Compelling enough to keep visitors from leaving.
    • A woman has come to me with the complaint that her website is not sticky: 70% of the visits last 30 seconds or less.
  11. (informal) Resembling or characteristic of a stick.
    • What's something that is brown and sticky? A stick

Noun (1)

sticky (countable and uncountable, plural stickies)

  1. A sticky note, such as a post-it note.
    • Her desk is covered with yellow stickies.
  2. (Internet) A discussion thread fixed at the top of the list of topics or threads so as to keep it in view.
  3. A small adhesive particle found in wastepaper.
  4. (Australia, colloquial) A sweet dessert wine.
  5. (slang) Sticky-icky; marijuana, especially the sticky, resin-covered buds.
    • We'd smoked some nice sticky that night and fucked with some Erk and Jerk too, so my head was still cloudy when Pimp came in the room and said get up.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 268
    • Still smoking sticky, it ain't no other option / Not for made niggas, and I'm never stopping2011 April 12, “Made Men”performed by Rick Ross
  6. (obsolete, slang, uncountable) Wax.

Verb

sticky (third-person singular simple present stickies, present participle stickying, simple past and past participle stickied)

  1. (Internet, transitive, bulletin boards) To fix (a discussion thread) at the top of the list of topics or threads so as to keep it in view.
    Antonyms:
    unsticky

Noun (2) capitalized: Sticky

Sticky (plural Stickies)

  1. (slang) A member of the Official Irish Republican Army.

sticky meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sticky in Hindi

sticky, clingy, slimy
चिपचिपा cipcipā

sticky in Tamil

பசையுள்ள, ஒட்டக் கூடிய, பிசுபிசுப்பான

sticky in Marathi

able or likely to stick
चिकट cikaṭ

sticky in Urdu

sticky, greasy
چکنا ciknā
More languagesFewer languages
sticky in Bengali
আঠাল, চটচট, চট্চটে, চিটচিটে
sticky in Telugu
జిగట, జిగటగా, అంటుకుంటుంది
sticky in Malayalam
ഒട്ടുന്ന, പശയായ
sticky in Kannada
ಗಿಜಟಿ, ಜಿಗುಟು, ಜಿಬಟು, ಜಿಬ್ಬು
sticky in Punjabi
ਸਟਿੱਕੀ, ਚਿਪਚਿਪਾ, ਸਟਿੱਕੀ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
sticky in Gujarati
ચેપી cepī
sticky in Odia
ଷ୍ଟିକି
sticky in Nepali
चिपचिपा, स्टिकी, टाँसिने
sticky in Indonesian
lengket
sticky in Thai
เหนียว nǐao
sticky in Vietnamese
dính

Examples of sticky in a sentence

  • The mud was thick and sticky underfoot, but we squelched through it nonetheless.
  • I stepped in some goo and had a terrible time getting the sticky stuff off my shoes.
  • An anteater is an insectivore with a long sticky tongue to catch its prey.

All 40 example sentences with sticky

Synonyms of sticky

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of sticky

Forms of sticky

Adjective
comparativestickier
superlativestickiest
Noun
pluralstickies
pluralStickies
Verb
third-person singular presentstickies
present participlestickying
past participlestickied
paststickied

Origin of sticky

From stick + -y.

So called because they sold adhesive lilies to commemorate the Easter Rising.

Words formed from sticky

Phrases with sticky

16 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sticky

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sticky

What does sticky mean?
Sticky means tending to stick; able to adhere via the drying of a viscous substance.
What is sticky in Hindi?
Sticky in Hindi is चिपचिपा (cipcipā). See Sticky meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sticky?
Sticky can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sticky?
Sticky is pronounced /ˈstɪki/.

Words near sticky in the dictionary

  1. stickweed
  2. stickweeds
  3. stickwoman
  4. stickwomen
  5. stickwork
  6. sticky
  7. sticky bead argument
  8. sticky beak
  9. sticky beaked
  10. sticky beaking
  11. sticky beaks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sticky (page history and authors); Sticky (page history and authors); चिपचिपा (Hindi) (page history and authors); sticky (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); چکنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); sticky (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sticky (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sticky (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sticky (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sticky (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ચેપી (Gujarati) (page history and authors); sticky (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sticky (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-sticky.ogg, en-au-sticky.ogg.

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