# slim

> English word · Adjective · IPA /slɪm/ · frequency rank #6,621

## Definitions
1. Slender; thin.
2. Slender; thin.
3. Slender; thin.
4. Slender; thin.
5. Very small, tiny.
6. Bad, of questionable quality; not strongly built, flimsy.
7. Sly, crafty.

## Etymology
Borrowing from Low German or Dutch slim (“bad, sly, clever”), from Middle Dutch slim (“bad, crooked”), from Old Dutch *slimb, from Proto-West Germanic *slimb, from Proto-Germanic *slimbaz (“oblique, crooked”). The sense development would have been "slanting, cunning" (Dutch) > "insignificant, slight" and then "thin, graceful" in English, a shift that Liberman calls an "incredible amelioration" of word meaning.
The pejorative sense found in Low German and Dutch is also found preserved in the archaic English noun slim (“worthless or lazy person”), also comparable to the South African use of the adjective as "crafty, sly."
Compare Dutch slim (“smart, clever, crafty”), Middle High German slimp (“slanting, awry”), German schlimm (“bad”), West Frisian slim (“bad, dire”).

## Easily confused with
- **SM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-sm)
- **sum** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-sum)
- **sly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-sly)
- **som** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-som)
- **STI** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-sti)
- **Sui** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-sui)
- **SSI** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-ssi)
- **SLR** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-slr)
- **soi** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-soi)
- **STM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-stm)
- **slow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-slow)
- **suit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-suit)
- **soil** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-soil)
- **spin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-spin)
- **stem** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-stem)
- **slip** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-slip)
- **swim** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-swim)
- **slot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-slot)
- **spam** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-spam)
- **stir** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slim-vs-stir)

## Common misspellings (6)
`lsim`, `silm`, `slimm`, `sllim`, `slmi`, `sslim`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/slim