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PlainSpell

sleaze

/sliːz/noun, verb

sleaze is spelled S-L-E-A-Z-E: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,209th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sleaze means “Low moral standards” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sleaze is sleazes.

How many letters and syllables are in sleaze?

Letters6: S-L-E-A-Z-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 44,209th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is sleaze?

Sleaze appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,209th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sleaze?

  • /sliːz/

Sleaze has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-sleaze.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of sleaze

  • sleazes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sleazing participle, present
  • sleazed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sleaze mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Low moral standards.

  2. 2

    IrelandUKPolitical corruption.

  3. 3

    informalA person of low moral standards.

  4. 4

    informalA man who is sexually aggressive or forward with women to the point of causing disgust.

  5. 5

    informalSleazy material or publications.

    a tabloid newspaper full of sleaze

verb

  1. 1

    To act or progress in a sleazy manner.

    He sleazed his way over to the women at the bar.

  2. 2

    To slander.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sleaze in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdébauche (low moral standards), rustre, pervers (a person with low moral standards)
GermanVerderbtheit (low moral standards)
Portuguesefalta de princípios, corrupção (low moral standards), canalha, corrupto (a person with low moral standards)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sleaze come from?

Back-formation from sleazy, originally used to describe the thinness and low quality of cloth.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sleaze