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slovenly

slo·ven·lyUK /ˈslʌv.ən.li/adjective, adverb

slovenly is an adjective meaning “Having an untidy appearance; unkempt” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-L-O-V-E-N-L-Y and has 3 syllables (slo·ven·ly), and it appears about once in every 6 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does slovenly mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    Having an untidy appearance; unkempt.

  2. 2

    Dirty, unwashed; disorderly.

  3. 3

    Careless or negligent; sloppy.

adverb

  1. 1

    In a slovenly manner.

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

How do you pronounce slovenly?

  • UK /ˈslʌv.ən.li/
  • UK /ˈslʌv.ən.li/
  • UK /ˈslɒv.ən.li/

Slovenly has 3 syllables, split slo·ven·ly in writing.

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

Forms of slovenly

  • slovenlier comparative
  • slovenliest superlative
  • more slovenly comparative
  • most slovenly superlative

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

How common is slovenly?

Slovenly appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 74,122nd 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).

Slovenly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchnégligé, dépeigné (having an untidy appearance; unkempt), sale (dirty, unwashed; disorderly), bâclé (careless or negligent; sloppy)
Germanschluderig (having an untidy appearance; unkempt), nachlässig, schlampig (careless or negligent; sloppy)
Portuguesemulambento (having an untidy appearance; unkempt), porco (dirty, unwashed; disorderly), descuidado (careless or negligent; sloppy)
Spanishdejado, desaliñado (having an untidy appearance; unkempt), desaseado (dirty, unwashed; disorderly)

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 slovenly come from?

From sloven + -ly.

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