Skip to the word

Added 9 October 2026

dingy

/ˈdɪn.d͡ʒi/ adjective

adjective Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about dingy at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot.
a miner's begrimed face
(of color) discolored by impurities; not bright and clear.
dirty
Causing dejection.
a blue day

Origin

From English dialectal (Kentish) dingy (“dirty”), of unknown origin, though probably from Middle English *dingy, dungy, from Old English *dyncgiġ (“covered with dung, dirty”), an umlaut form of duncge, dung (“dung”), equivalent to dung + -y, hence a doublet of dungy.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word