If something is extremely dirty, filthy or just plain disgusting, it falls into the territory of the noun squalor. We’re not just talking about a messy room. We’re talking about a dungeon riddled with rats and roaches.
- Pronunciation: / 'skwɔlɚ/
- English description: sordid dirtiness
- Synonyms: sordidness
- Chinese Translation: 肮脏(ang1 zang1)
- Spanish Translation: la inmundicia
- ORIGIN: Squalor comes from the Latin squalere, which means “to be filthy.” This word often refers to living conditions as in, “after the disaster, the people were living in squalor.” This word can also describe a city or a building that is in general disrepair such as “ever since the budget cuts, the city has fallen into squalor.” If you know someone whose head is always in the gutter, you might say they suffer from a “squalor of the mind.”
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
- I also grew increasingly concerned for those animals, who had no choice to live in such squalor.
- Many live in squalor, in communities where alcoholism and drug taking are rife and where domestic violence occurs daily.
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