lousy
adjective
Simple meaning
Remarkably bad; of poor quality.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lowzeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlaʊzi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
colloquial
Remarkably bad; of poor quality.
colloquial
Unwell; under the weather.
colloquial
Dirty or untidy.
Infested with lice.
colloquialusually with with
Filled or packed (with something, usually bad).
colloquial
Underhanded; mean; contemptible.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Remarkably bad; of poor quality.
Used this way, lousy is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.