messy

See also: Messy

English

Etymology

From mess +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛsi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛsi
• Hyphenation: messy
• Homophone: Messi

Adjective

messy (comparative messier, superlative messiest)

1. (of a place, situation, person, etc) In a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly.

   a messy office

   Jim ran his fingers through his messy brown hair.

   • 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory.

2. (of a person) Prone to causing mess.

   He is the messiest person I've ever met.

3. (of a situation) Difficult or unpleasant to deal with.

   a messy divorce

Synonyms

(in a disorderly state): untidy, chaotic, disorderly, cluttered

Antonyms

• neat
• orderly

Derived terms

• messily
• messiness
• wet and messy, wet and messy fetishism

Descendants

• → German: Messie

Translations

in a disorderly state; causing mess or confusion; chaotic; disorderly

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: бязладны (bjazladny), неахайны (njeaxajny)
• Bulgarian: разхвърлян (bg) (razhvǎrljan)
• Catalan: desordenat, desendreçat
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 凌亂 (zh) (língluàn)

• Dutch: wanordelijk (nl), chaotisch (nl), rommelig (nl), warrig (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: sotkuinen (fi), sekainen (fi)
• French: désordonné (fr), désorganisé (fr), chaotique (fr)
• Georgian: ჭუჭყიანი (č̣uč̣q̇iani)
• German: chaotisch (de), unordentlich (de)
• Greek: ακατάστατος (el) (akatástatos)
• Hebrew: חסר סדר m (khasár séder), מבולגן m (mevulgán)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: rendetlen (hu)
• Icelandic: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: berantakan (id)
• Irish: míshlachtmhar, smeadráilte
• Italian: disordinato (it)
• Japanese: 乱雑な (ja) (らんざつな, ranzatsu na), きたない (ja) (kitanai) (dirty), ぐちゃぐちゃ (ja) (guchagucha) (sloppy)
• Khmer: រញ៉េរញ៉ៃ (rɔɔñeerɔɔñay) (disorderly)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Krio: chaka-chaka
• Latin: incomptus
• Macedonian: неу́реден (neúreden), ра́сфрлен (rásfrlen)
• Malay: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: pōrohe, hahohaho, pūaweawe
• Norwegian: rotete (no)
• Plautdietsch: onkrakjt
• Polish: bałaganiarski (pl), zasyfiony (informal), niechlujny (pl)
• Portuguese: desorganizado (pt), bagunçado (pt), caótico (pt), desordenado (pt)
• Romanian: dezordonat (ro), haotic (ro)
• Russian: беспоря́дочный (ru) (besporjádočnyj) (disorderly), гря́зный (ru) (grjáznyj) (dirty), неря́шливый (ru) (nerjášlivyj) (sloppy)
• Slovak: neupravený, rozhádzaný, v neporiadku, neuprataný
• Spanish: desordenado (es)
• Swedish: rorig
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: darmadağınık (tr), karmakarışık (tr), (colloquial) karman çorman, pasaklı (tr)
• Ukrainian: безла́дний (uk) m (bezládnyj), неоха́йний m (neoxájnyj)
• Vietnamese: lộn xộn (vi), hỗn loạn (vi)
• Welsh: anniben (cy)

Further reading

• “messy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “messy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Symes

Middle English

Noun

messy

1. Alternative form of messe