as in chaotic
lacking in order, neatness, and often cleanliness
having a messy room is virtually de rigueur for a college student
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of messy
Some consumers may find the roller ball application method messy.
—
Bestreviews, Mercury News, 23 Mar. 2026
And having well and truly fallen off the wagon, the recovering alcoholic arrives at one particular murder scene in the full messy throes of withdrawal.
—Jon O'Brien, IndieWire, 23 Mar. 2026
Bellak finds that many multinationals claim to have an official corporate language policy, but day-to-day language choice is messy, hard to regulate and often up to the individual.
—Aslesha Mehta, Fortune, 23 Mar. 2026
If Brooklyn’s season has been about finding small wins inside messy nights, the first half looked like one of them.
—C.j. Holmes, New York Daily News, 23 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for messy
Bestreviews, Mercury News, 23 Mar. 2026
And having well and truly fallen off the wagon, the recovering alcoholic arrives at one particular murder scene in the full messy throes of withdrawal.
—Jon O'Brien, IndieWire, 23 Mar. 2026
Bellak finds that many multinationals claim to have an official corporate language policy, but day-to-day language choice is messy, hard to regulate and often up to the individual.
—Aslesha Mehta, Fortune, 23 Mar. 2026
If Brooklyn’s season has been about finding small wins inside messy nights, the first half looked like one of them.
—C.j. Holmes, New York Daily News, 23 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for messy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for messy
Adjective
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The fan disappointment was echoed in the community dedicated to Barbie on Reddit, where many called out the organizers for such a chaotic event.—
Rebecca Cohen,
NBC news,
30 Mar. 2026
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The footage captures a chaotic moment many pet owners recognize instantly—when curiosity tips over into trouble.—
Melissa Fleur Afshar,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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This was a better defensive effort for the Stars than their sloppy defeat Tuesday night at home against New Jersey.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
27 Mar. 2026
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The Lakers relied on another part-time G League contributor to carry them through a sloppy fourth quarter.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The breakthrough by a team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) mimics how bats rely on simple echolocation to move through dark, cluttered environments with minimal neural processing.—
Jijo Malayil,
Interesting Engineering,
27 Mar. 2026
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His front yard became cluttered with a living room’s worth of patio furniture, bar stools, storage containers, a cord of firewood and a fire pit.—
Laura Bauer,
Kansas City Star,
26 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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When the director approached Hanks directly, the actor was confused.—
Samantha Agate,
Miami Herald,
28 Mar. 2026
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After catching confused glances all through Venice, traversing neighborhoods and winding along Abbott Kinney, the group landed at the home of Matt Ricotta.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The series does not touch on the tabloid attention that followed the Beckhams in 2004, when it was alleged that David had an affair with his personal assistant, Rebecca Loos, and the many further accusations of cheating that littered gossip columns after.—
Scarlett Harris,
Time,
9 Oct. 2025
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Cigarette butts are the most littered item on the planet.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
16 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Initially intriguing, the jumbled chronology eventually proves to be largely decorative until a disappointing late-reel twist explains why the labored device was deployed in the first place.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2026
-
But Buffon protested that a system of tidy categories based upon a single criterion belied the lush and jumbled profusion of nature.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
25 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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On January 7, Saman wrote me that two of her Afghan neighbors had just been arrested and sent to a deportation camp that was rumored to be filthy, cold, and overcrowded.—
George Packer,
The Atlantic,
24 Mar. 2026
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The filmmaker shows a strong handle over the film’s fanciful tone and fitfully filthy sense of humor, and he’s credited with composing the film’s score full of squawking brass instruments and skittish strings in addition to writing, directing and editing.—
Stephen Saito,
Variety,
16 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Messy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/messy. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
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