shady
adjective
Simple meaning
Overspread with shade.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
shaydeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʃeɪdi
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
Overspread with shade; sheltered from the glare of light or sultry heat.
Abounding in shades.
Causing shade.
informal
Not trustworthy; disreputable.
ukslang
Mean, cruel.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Overspread with shade; sheltered from the glare of light or sultry heat.
Used this way, shady is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- umbrageous , rarer, so it draws attention
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.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: overspread with shade
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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.