# slime

> English word · Noun · IPA /slaɪm/ · frequency rank #17,721

## Definitions
1. Soft, moist earth or clay, having an adhesive quality; viscous mud; any substance of a dirty nature, that is moist, soft, and adhesive; bitumen; mud containing metallic ore, obtained in the preparatory dressing.
2. Any mucilaginous substance; or a mucus-like substance which exudes from the bodies of certain animals, such as snails or slugs.
3. Synonym of flubber (“kind of rubbery polymer”).
4. A sneaky, unethical person; a slimeball.
5. A monster having the form of a slimy blob.
6. Human flesh, seen disparagingly; mere human form.
7. Jew’s slime (bitumen).
8. A friend; a homie.

## Etymology
From Middle English slime, slyme, slim, slym, from Old English slīm, from Proto-West Germanic *slīm, from Proto-Germanic *slīmą, from Proto-Indo-European *sley- (“smooth; slick; sticky; slimy”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Sliem, Dutch slijm, German Schleim (“mucus, slime”), Danish slim, Faroese slím (“slime”), Latin limus (“mud”), Ancient Greek λίμνη (límnē, “marsh”).

## Easily confused with
- **SME** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-sme)
- **some** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-some)
- **slip** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-slip)
- **swim** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-swim)
- **slit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-slit)
- **slum** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-slum)
- **smile** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-smile)
- **suite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-suite)
- **spite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-spite)
- **spike** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-spike)
- **spice** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-spice)
- **spine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-spine)
- **slope** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-slope)
- **slips** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-slips)
- **swipe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-swipe)
- **swine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-swine)
- **slump** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-slump)
- **sling** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-sling)
- **slums** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-slums)
- **spire** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slime-vs-spire)

## Common misspellings (7)
`lsime`, `silme`, `sliem`, `slimme`, `sllime`, `slmie`, `sslime`

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