sloth means laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness. It carries an Arena rating of 1626, earned across 9 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sloth ranks #1,270 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,738 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #1,739 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #2,890 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
sloth is pronounced /sləʊθ/.
Why “sloth” is a great word
A disinclination to action or labor; habitual laziness or indolence, or a slow-moving, tree-dwelling mammal of tropical America. From Middle English slouthe, slewthe ("laziness"), from Old English slǣwþ ("sloth, indolence"), from Proto-West Germanic *slaiwiþu, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþō ("slowness, lateness"), from the root of slow + the abstract nominal suffix -th. Unlike "lethargy," which implies a pathological torpor, or "tardigrade," a precise zoological label, sloth carries a moral weight—it is not illness but choice, not taxonomy but temperament. It is the unmade bed at noon, the unwashed dish growing its soft civilization of mold, the mammalian creature hanging from a branch like a living question mark. The word condemns and describes simultaneously: the sin that creeps, the animal that does not flee, the human who has decided that motion itself is suspect.
Etymology
From Middle English slouthe, slewthe (“laziness”), from Old English slǣwþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-West Germanic *slaiwiþu, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþō (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).
noun
- Laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness.e.g.“Hot summer days inspire a sense of sloth in me.”
- Any animal in the suborder Folivora.; Any herbivorous, arboreal South American mammal of the families Choloepodidae and Bradypodidae, noted for its slowness and inactivity.
- Any animal in the suborder Folivora.; Any of the extinct group of ground sloths.
- A group of bears.
verb
- To be idle; to idle (away time).e.g.“He has been slothing this whole weekend.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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