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PlainSpell

sloth

/slɔθ/noun

sloth is spelled S-L-O-T-H: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sloth means “Laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sloth is sloths.

How many letters and syllables are in sloth?

Letters5: S-L-O-T-H
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.3 times per million words; the 25,367th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is sloth?

Sloth appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th 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 sloth?

  • UK /sləʊθ/
  • UK /slɒθ/
  • US /slɔθ/

Sloth 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)-Knowledgeisking1-sloth.wav, En-uk-sloth.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with sloth?

3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sloth from its last stressed vowel (/ɔθ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of sloth

  • sloths plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sleuth
  • sloath
  • slowth
  • slothing participle, present
  • slothed participle, past

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

What does sloth mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness.

    Hot summer days inspire a sense of sloth in me.

  2. 2

    Any member of species of the families Choloepodidae and Bradypodidae of herbivorous, arboreal South American mammals, noted for its slowness and inactivity.

  3. 3

    Any of the extinct group of ground sloths.

  4. 4

    rareA group of bears.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo be idle; to idle (away time).

    He has been slothing this whole weekend.

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

Sloth in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchparesse (laziness), paresseux, aï (mammal)
GermanTrägheit, Faulheit, Müßiggang (laziness), Faultier (mammal)
Portuguesepreguiça (laziness), bicho-preguiça, aí, aígue, unau (mammal)
Spanishpereza (laziness), perezoso, cúcula, caimansote, calípedes (mammal)

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 sloth come from?

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”).

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

What to look up after sloth