sludge
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sludge¹
- /slʌd͡ʒ/
Rhymes with -ʌdʒ
Where it comes from
From Middle English slugge, sluche (“mud, mire”), probably an alteration of Middle English sliche, slicche ("mud, slush, tar"; whence Modern English slitch), from Old English *sliċ, from Proto-West Germanic *sliki, *slīk, from Proto-Germanic *slikiz, *slīką (“mud, slush”). Cognate with Dutch slijk, German Schlick. Compare also slush.
noun sludges · slutch
- Solids separated from suspension in a liquid. Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.[…]Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
- A residual semi-solid material left from industrial, water treatment, or wastewater treatment processes.
- A sediment of accumulated minerals in a steam boiler.
- A mass of small pieces of ice on the surface of a water body.
- Ellipsis of sludge metal
- Institutional policies that introduce tedium and inefficiency in processes. In the 2008 best seller Nudge, the legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein and the economist Richard H. Thaler marshaled behavioral-science research to show how small tweaks could help us make better choices. An updated version of the book includes a section on what they called “sludge”—tortuous administrati
verb sludges · sludging · sludged · slutch
- To slump or slouch.
- To slop or drip slowly.
SLUDGE²
noun
-
An acronym used to help remember the common symptoms of certain affections of a cholinergic toxidrome: salivation, lacrimation, urination, defecation, gastrointestinal upset, emesis.
Similar: DUMBELS
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: slime, muck, ooze, goo, gunk, guck, sewage, dewatering, silt, dirt, gutter, sediment, ditch, dust, mire, loam
Translations
Every language
noun generic term for separated solids
| Español | lodo, sedimento, puaj, fango, pecina |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 진흙 jinheuk, 진창 jinchang |
| 日本語 | 泥 doro, 泥土 deido |
| 中文 | 污泥 wūní |
| Português | sedimento |
| Français | lie |
| Deutsch | Schlamm, Matsch |
| Русский | шлам šlam, ил il |
noun residual material from a process
| Español | fango |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Abwasserschlamm |
| Русский | оса́док osádok |
| العربية | حَمَأ ḥamaʔ, حَمأَة |
noun small pieces of ice
| Español | costra |
|---|
Talk about this word "sludge." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sludge. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. sludge. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sludge "sludge." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sludge.Cite this
@misc{sludge_2026,
title = {sludge},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sludge},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
