1
as in shaded
protected from the sun's rays
a lovely shady spot in the park that was pleasantly cool
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in deceptive
given to or marked by cheating and deception
a shady business deal
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in questionable
giving good reason for being doubted, questioned, or challenged
cited some shady statistics to back up his argument
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in shifty
given to acting in secret and to concealing one's intentions
shady characters hanging out in the park after nightfall
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
5
as in notorious
not respectable
a courtesan who lived on the shady fringe of society
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of shady
This shady system favors political connections and authoritarian governments over ingenuity and innovation.
—
David Faris, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 June 2025
Goggins played the mysterious Rick, a man with a shady past.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 5 June 2025
Markowski recommends reducing shady, humid areas where the insects hide from the heat, including ornamental grasses, dense shrubs, carports and rocks near ponds.
—Arkansas Online, 8 June 2025
Give your dad the gift of peace of mind with a data removal service that scrubs his personal details from people-search sites and shady data brokers.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 8 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for shady
David Faris, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 June 2025
Goggins played the mysterious Rick, a man with a shady past.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 5 June 2025
Markowski recommends reducing shady, humid areas where the insects hide from the heat, including ornamental grasses, dense shrubs, carports and rocks near ponds.
—Arkansas Online, 8 June 2025
Give your dad the gift of peace of mind with a data removal service that scrubs his personal details from people-search sites and shady data brokers.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 8 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for shady
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shady
Adjective
-
In the suit, filed Friday, Newsom says that Fox News had used deceptive edits to claim that the governor had lied in saying that Trump had not called him about deploying National Guard troops during the L.A. protests.—
Caitlin Huston,
HollywoodReporter,
27 June 2025
-
Florida is leading the way in what can become a national movement to crack down on hospitals’ deceptive and unfair billing practices.—
Cynthia A. Fisher,
Sun Sentinel,
26 June 2025
Adjective
-
The market was split between natural products that didn’t perform and luxury beauty loaded with questionable ingredients.—
Megan Bruneau,
Forbes.com,
21 June 2025
-
However, many travelers don't think twice about buying a cheap charging cable from a questionable vendor at an airport shop or online marketplace, making these cables a more successful point of attack.—
Iona Brannon,
Travel + Leisure,
21 June 2025
Adjective
-
Claire, who blows in and out of Kate’s life, turns up one night pleading for help and telling tales about an accident involving her shifty boyfriend Ryan (Edmund Donovan).—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
12 June 2025
-
By associating vibes with AI, doing so is an outrageous and shifty means of subliminally implying that AI is mysterious, perhaps bordering on possessing sentience.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
5 May 2025
Adjective
-
The singer, who’s notorious for being open and candid, shared that Ozempic was a part of her weight loss journey while on the Just Trish podcast.—
Elizabeth Ayoola,
Essence,
20 June 2025
-
Physiologically, these states of bodily outpourings are of course quite self-explanatory, given all the melting, leaking, sweating, salivating and squirting the Sapphic body is notorious for in the art of Sapphics of all genders throughout history.—
Siouxzi Connor
June 20,
Literary Hub,
20 June 2025
Adjective
-
Swimming through the shadowy waters off Palau, scuba divers watched life on a coral reef after dark.—
Aspen Pflughoeft,
Miami Herald,
18 June 2025
-
But the specimens’ small size offered little idea of what this shadowy population of ancient hominins looked like, and the group has never been assigned an official scientific name.—
Katie Hunt,
CNN Money,
18 June 2025
Adjective
-
Execution: With these tools in place, fraudsters can open fraudulent accounts, apply for loans and carry out high-value transactions, all while appearing completely legitimate.—
Parya Lotfi,
Forbes.com,
23 June 2025
-
This includes Amazon allowing small businesses to make multiple appeals when fighting a fraudulent return.—
Katie Tarasov,
CNBC,
21 June 2025
Adjective
-
But another piece of it is in the dubious nature of the state’s creation.—
Chris Stirewalt,
The Hill,
20 June 2025
-
Pair that with a Republican reconciliation bill that increases tax giveaways while refusing to rein in even the most dubious Medicaid expansions, and the message is unmistakable: Washington is still in giveaway mode.—
Fatima Hussein,
Los Angeles Times,
18 June 2025
Adjective
-
Executive Chef Graham House and Chef de Cuisine Graham House of Luminosa in Asheville, NC, recommend using a whole roast chicken, both dark and white meat, but placing half of it in the food processor before hand shredding the remaining bits for texture.—
Catherine Jessee,
Southern Living,
27 June 2025
-
My challenge was to make the sequel scarier, and darker.—
Sweta Kaushal,
Forbes.com,
27 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Shady.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shady. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share