Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Slovenly |
SlovenlyAdjective1. Negligent of neatness especially in dress and person; habitually dirty and unkempt; "filled the door with her frowzy bulk"; "frowzy white hair"; "slovenly appearance". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "slovenly" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
Synonyms: SlovenlySynonyms: frowsy (adj), frowzy (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Disorder | Immethodical; unsymmetric, unsystematic; untidy, slovenly; dislocated; out of sorts; promiscuous, indiscriminate; chaotic, anarchical; unarranged; (see arrange; ); confused; deranged; topsy-turvy; (inverted); shapeless; disjointed, out of joint. |
Feebleness | Careless, slovenly, loose, lax (negligent); slipshod, slipslop; inexact; puerile, childish; flatulent; rambling; (diffuse). |
Neglect | Supine; (inactive); inattentive; insouciant; (indifferent); imprudent, reckless; slovenly; (disorderly), (dirty); inexact; (erroneous); improvident. |
Uncleanness | Slovenly, untidy, messy, uncleanly. |
Unskillfulness | Adjective: unskillful; inexpert; bungling;Verb: awkward, clumsy, unhandy, lubberly, gauche, maladroit; left-handed, heavy-handed; slovenly, slatternly; gawky. |
Vulgarity | Dowdy; slovenly; (dirty); ungenteel, shabby genteel; low, common, hoi polloi; (plebeian); uncourtly; uncivil; (discourteous); ill bred, ill mannered; underbred; ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike; unladylike, unfeminine; wild, wild as an unbacked colt. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Slovenly |
| English words defined with "slovenly": Daggle-tail ♦ Frouzy ♦ Slopwork, slouch, Slowenly, Slubberingly ♦ To be down at the heel ♦ unkempt, untidy. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "slovenly": Broom ♦ Halgaver ♦ spelling flame. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "slovenly": sloven. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Slovenly" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Slovenly" is used about 54 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 54 | 46,184 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "slovenly": she's slovenly ♦ slovenly person ♦ slovenly woman. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
slovenly | 10 |
peter slovenly | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "slovenly"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shkatarraq (sloven), pisanjos (sloven), në mënyrë të çrregullt (by fits and starts, fitfully). (various references) | |
Arabic | هذه قذارة, قذر الملابس (sloven), قذر (augean, beastly, contaminated, crummy, defiled, dingy, dirt, dirty, disreputable, dungy, filthy, foul, ghoulish, grimy, grubby, impure, lousy, mean, mucky, muddy, nasty, obscene, pig, piggish, polluted, rubbishy, sinful, slattern, slatternly, slob, sloppy, smutty, soil, sordid, squalid, unclean, uncleanly, untidy, verminous, vile). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | небрежен (careless, casual, floppy, heedless, lax, loose, neglectful, neglige, negligent, perfunctory, ragged, raunchy, regardless, remiss, skimpy, slack, slapdash, slipshod, slipslop, sloppy, thoughtless, unheeding, untidy), мърляв (dirty, grubby, raunchy, scrubby, scruffy, slatternly, slipshod). (various references) | |
Chinese | 不修邊幅 (be slovenly, not care about one's appearance). (various references) | |
Czech | nedbalý (careless, casual, lax, neglectful, negligent, offhand, remiss, slack, sloppy, unmindful), lajdácký (slipshod, sloppy), špinavý (black, dirty, filthy, foul, grimy, grotty, grubby, impure, messy, murky, nasty, seamy, smutty, sordid, squalid, unclean). (various references) | |
Farsi | هردمبیل (Unprincipled), نامرتب (Disheveled, Irregular, Sloppy, Unequal, Unkempt, Untidy), لاابالی (Improvident, Slipshod, Tentless), ژولیده (Disheveled, Draggy, Ragamuffin, Uncouth, Unkempt), شلخته (Blowzy, Slipshod, Sloppy, Sordid). (various references) | |
Finnish | huolimaton (careless, heedless, negligent, slapdash, slipshod, sloppy), epäsiisti (bedraggled, dirty, sloppy, untidy). (various references) | |
French | sale, négligé (slipshod, sloppy), bâclé. (various references) | |
German | schlampig (bedraggled, blowzy, careless, draggled, frowzy, frumpish, grubby, grumblingly, slack, slatternly, sleazily, slipshod, sloppy, untidy). (various references) | |
Greek | ακατάστατοσ (blowzy, disorderly, frowsy, frowzy, messy, mussy, slatternly, slob, sloppy, unsettled, untidy), ατημέλητος (scruffy). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מרושל (careless, frowzy, negligent, perfunctory, slack, slapdash, slipshod, slob, sloppy, unkempt), רשל י (careless, neglectful, negligent, remiss). (various references) | |
Hungarian | lompos (dowdy, draggle-tailed, mangy, slatternly, sleazy, slipshod, tacky), ápolatlan (frouzy, frowzy, scruffy, slatternly, unkempt, untidy), szurtos (slatternly), slampos (flipperty-flopperty, floppy, frumpish). (various references) | |
Italian | sciatto (blowzy, careless, dowdy, frowzy, pig, shabby, sleazily, slipshod, sloppy, unkempt), trascurato (careless, forlorn, inaccurate, lax, neglected, neglectful, negligent, perfunctory, remiss), trasandato (dowdy, scruffy, shabby, sleazy, slipshod, untidy), disordinato (disorderly, higgledy-piggledy, hugger mugger, irregular, messy, muddled, pell mell, unsettled, untidy, wild). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 猥りがわしい (morally corrupt, obscene), 濫りがわしい (morally corrupt, obscene), それ迄 (all together, careless, en masse, extortion, feel chilly, fidgety, in a body, in groups, in succession, like that, nervous, restless, rude, shiver, shudder, sponging, such, that sort of, That's it, That's the end of the matter, thrill, uneasy, Until then), ふさぎ込む (fast, impudent, loose, messy, to mope, untidy, with a whiff), まし取る (endlessly, I guess, indicate reason, infers some protest, loose, pouring liquid, prevaricating, seems, sluggishly, to be lazy, to be slack, to be unsuccessful, to fail, to feel dull, to feel languid, to feel listless, to take something away by deception). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ぞ"ざい (careless, rude), ふし ら (fast, loose, messy, untidy), み りがわしい (morally corrupt, obscene), らしない (loose). (various references) | |
Korean | 단 치 못한 (sloppy). (various references) | |
Manx | trudlymagh, slibbinagh, sleaghtragh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ovenlyslay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | sujo (boarish, cloudy, crummy, dingy, ebon, feculent, filthy, foul, frowzy, greasy, grimy, grouty, grubby, lousy, messy, miry, mucky, nasty, obscene, piggish, scurrilous, sloven, smudgy, smutty, soiled, splotchy, squalid, stained, swinish, unclean, untidy, unwashed), mal-arranjado (messy, scruffy, unkempt), mal vestido (scruffy), desmazelado (frumpish, grubby, neglectful, negligent, remiss, slatternly, slipshod, slouch, untidy), desleixado (careless, floppy, forgetful, frumpish, incurious, neglectful, negligent, remiss, slatternly, slipshod, sloppy, slouch, uncared-for, untidy), desalinhado (blowzy, frowzy, messy, untidy). (various references) | |
Romanian | murdar (base, basely, bawdy, dingy, dirty, dungy, filthy, foul, foully, frowzy, greasy, grimy, grubby, impure, mangy, messy, nasty, piggish, piggy, poky, scurrilous, seedy, shabby, slimy, smeary, smutty, soppy, sordid, sordidly, squalid, Tarry, thick, unclean, untidy), şlampãt (draggle-tailed, slattern, slatternly, sleazy). (various references) | |
Russian | неряшливый (grubby, lax, poky, scruffy, slatternly, slipshod). (various references) | |
Scottish | slapach , sl pach, ròpach, luideach (shaggy), liobasta (awkward, clumsy), liobasda, liobarnach, gliomach. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | neuredan (disorderly, disorganized, frowsy, frowzy, inordinate, littery, sloppy, untidy), nehatan (careless, incurious, negligent, remiss, unheeding), aljkavo (sloppily), aljkav (blowzy, dowdy, grubby, littery, slatternly, slipshod, slipslop, sloppy, unkempt). (various references) | |
Spanish | estropajoso (sinewy, stammering, tough), estrafalario (bizarre, eccentric, extravagant, fancy, incongruous, odd, outlandish, screwball, sloppy, tacky, wack, wild, zany), despreocupado (breezy, carefree, devil may care, disregarded, happy go lucky, nonchalant, slapdash, unconcerned), desgarbado (awkward, gawky, ungainly, unlovely), descuidado (abandoned, careless, disregarded, heedless, incautious, incautiousness, lackadaisical, neglected, neglectful, negligent, overgrown, remiss, thoughtless, unattending, uncared for), desaliñado (blowzy, disheveled, dishevelled, dowdy, dowdyish, down at heel, frowzy, frumpish, messy, neglected, scruffy, tacky, unkempt, untidy), dejado (abandoned, abandonee, blowzy, dung, left, legacy, lost, relaxed, untidy). (various references) | |
Swedish | sluskig (shabby), slarvig (careless, down at heel, fribble, frivolous, inattentive, off hand, offhand, offhanded, shoddy, slapdash, sloppy, slutish, untidy), hafsig (down at heel, slapdash, slipshod). (various references) | |
Turkish | savsak (negligent, remiss), sünepe (shiftless, softy), yarım yamalak (after a fashion, half-way, incompletely, loose, perfunctory, sketchy, slipshod), pasaklı (dowdy, dowdyish, draggled, frowzy, gay, messy, out of trim, ratty, slatternly, slipshod, sloppy, sloven, untidy), kötü yapılmış (incondite), kılıksızca, kılıksız (dowdy, dowdyish, down heels, down the heels, draggled, frumpish, hangdog, mean, poky, ratty, seedy, shabby, sleazy, untidy), hırpani kılıklı, hırpani bir şekilde (slatternly), baştan savma (evasive, patchily, patchy, perfunctory, run around, salvo, sketchy, slapdash, slipshod), şapşalca, şapşal (a button short, raunchy, silly, sloven). (various references) | |
Turkmen | hapysa (careless). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | нечепурний (pokey, poky, slattern, slatternly), неохайно, неохайний (chatty, dowdy, frowzy, frumpish, grubby, negligent, scruffy, slapdash, slattern, slatternly, slobbery, sloven, soppy, squalid, unclean, uncleanly, unkempt, untidy), недбало (carelessly, casually, negligently, offhandedly), недбалий (careless, casual, dishonest, heedless, inattentive, lax, neglectful, negligent, nonchalant, oscitant, overly, unguarded). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | nhếch nhác (chatty, frowsy, frowzy, slatternly), lếch thếch lười biếng cẩu thả; luộm thuộm, lôi thôi (uncared-for, untidy). (various references) | |
Welsh | di-lun, ble+r (untidy), ansyber (discourteous, untidy), anniben (slow, untidy), anghywrain (unskillful), afle+r (untidy). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | neglegens, neglegenter, neglegentia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Slovenly" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: slavely, sloveenly, slovenley, stovenly. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "slovenly" (pronounced slu"vunlē) |
| 5 | -v u n l ē | evenly, heavenly, unevenly. |
| 4 | -u n l ē | brazenly, certainly, clandestinely, commonly, gentlemanly, genuinely, humanly, matronly, mistakenly, openly, suddenly, uncertainly, uncommonly, wantonly. |
| 3 | -n l ē | benignly, cleanly, keenly, divinely, finely, greenly, humanely, lonely, mainly, manly, obscenely, only, plainly, sternly, stubbornly, thinly, ungainly, vainly. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-l-l-n-o-s-v-y" | |
-1 letter: novelly, volleys. | |
-2 letters: envoys, lonely, lovely, novels, sloven, solely, volley. | |
-3 letters: enols, envoy, lenos, losel, loves, nelly, noels, nosey, novel, ovens, snell, solve, sonly, voles, yells. | |
-4 letters: ells, enol, envy, eons, leno, lens, levo, levy, leys, lone, lose, love, lyes, lyse, noel, noes, nose, nosy, oles, ones, only, oven, oyes, sell, sloe, snye, sole. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-l-l-n-o-s-v-y" | |
+1 letter: solvently. | |
+4 letters: conclusively, convulsively, polyvalences. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.