messy

See also: Messy

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English mess

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Germanic *-gaz

Proto-West Germanic *-g

Old English -iġ

Middle English -y

English -y

English messy

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^[1], volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 11 March 2023:

     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

   • 2008 May 4, Alexandra Jacobs, “Blame the Messager”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 18 December 2021:

     Say bonjour to the botched R.S.V.P. The practice of replying to invitations, let alone actually showing up to parties as promised, has become as antiquated as the chimney sweep, and much messier.

4. (of a person) Argumentative, spreading spreading gossip, talking behind someone's back

   They keep starting fights with Sam, they're so messy.

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

• neat
• orderly

Derived terms

• messily
• messiness
• messyish
• nonmessy
• unmessy
• 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

  Egyptian Arabic: مكركب m (mikarkib), متكركب m (mitkarkib)

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

  Mandarin: 凌亂 (zh) (língluàn)

• Dutch: wanordelijk (nl), chaotisch (nl), rommelig (nl), warrig (nl)
• Esperanto: malorda, ĥaosa
• 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: अव्यवस्थित (hi) (avyavasthit), अस्त-व्यस्त (ast-vyast)
• Hungarian: rendetlen (hu)
• Icelandic: sóðalegur (is)
• 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
• Māori: 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), desprolijo (es), inordenado
• Swedish: rörig (sv)
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: darmadağınık (tr), karmakarışık (tr), (colloquial) karman çorman (tr), pasaklı (tr)
• Ukrainian: безла́дний (uk) m (bezládnyj), неоха́йний m (neoxájnyj)
• Vietnamese: lộn xộn (vi), hỗn loạn (vi)
• Welsh: anniben (cy)

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “messy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “messy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Symes

Middle English

Noun

messy

1. alternative form of messe