Word of the Day

: February 16, 2024

turbid

adjective TER-bid

What It Means

Turbid is a formal word that has several meanings having to do with literal or figurative muddiness or cloudiness. It's most often used literally to describe water that is thick or opaque with stirred-up sediment, as in "the river's turbid waters"; similarly, turbid air is smoky or misty. In figurative use, turbid describes things that lack clarity, as in "efforts to clear my turbid mind."

// The group decided to forgo stopping at the swimming hole on their hike because of its turbid waters.

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turbid in Context

"Forty million people rely on the Colorado River’s largesse, from Wyoming ranchers to the residents of sprawling Arizona subdivisions to the lettuce farmers in California’s Imperial Valley. Less visibly, the river is also a lifeline for 14 native species of fish. They are rarely seen by humans—the river they inhabit is as turbid as coffee, and they’re seldom fished for sport—yet they require a healthy Colorado as much as any Angeleno or Tucsonan." — Ben Goldfarb, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2023

Did You Know?

Turbid and turgid (which means "swollen or distended" or "overblown, pompous, or bombastic") are frequently mistaken for one another, and it's no wonder. Not only do the two words differ by only a letter, they are often used in contexts where either word could fit. For example, a flooded stream can be simultaneously cloudy and swollen, and badly written prose might be both unclear (another sense of turbid) and grandiloquent. Nevertheless, the distinction between these two words, however fine, is an important one for conveying exact shades of meaning, so it's a good idea to keep them straight. Turbid, like its relative turbulent, comes ultimately from the Latin noun turba, meaning "confusion" or "crowd," while turgid comes from the Latin verb turgēre, "to be swollen."