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sultry

sul·try/ˈsʌltɹi/adjective

sultry is spelled S-U-L-T-R-Y: 6 letters and 2 syllables (sul·try). It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, sultry means “Hot and humid; sweltering” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in sultry?

Letters6: S-U-L-T-R-Y
Syllables2: sul·try
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 29,270th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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

How common is sultry?

Sultry appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th 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 sultry?

  • UK /ˈsʌltɹi/
  • US /ˈsʌltɹi/
  • US /ˈsəl-/

Sultry has 2 syllables, split sul·try in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-sultry.ogg, En-us-sultry.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of sultry

  • sultrier comparative
  • sultriest superlative
  • sultrie

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

What does sultry mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Hot and humid; sweltering.

  2. 2

    Emitting great heat.

  3. 3

    Sexually enthralling.

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

Sultry in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchétouffant, lourd (hot and humid), torride (very hot and dry)
Germanschwül (hot and humid), drückend, heiß (very hot and dry), sexy (sexually enthralling)
Portuguesemormacento (hot and humid), tórrido (very hot and dry)
Spanishbochornoso (hot and humid), tórrido (very hot and dry), caliente (sexually enthralling)

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 sultry come from?

From sulter (“verb (obsolete), a variant of swelter”) + -y; compare sweltry.

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

What to look up after sultry