as in inertia
an inclination not to do work or engage in activities
a youth inclined more toward sloth than athletics
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Recent Examples of sloth
In the series, audiences will learn more about the animals that lived in the Pleistocene era, millions of years after the extinction of the dinosaurs, including the Megalonyx jeffersonii (also known as the snow sloth).
—
Charna Flam, PEOPLE, 6 Nov. 2025
In the past, the Small Mammals Building has been the home of such animals as fruit bats, sloths, porcupines, armadillos, tamarins, otters, lemurs and mongooses.
—Jim Higgins, jsonline.com, 28 Oct. 2025
While everyone else hustles about, the sloth knows that in slowness there is safety and success.
—Kate Siber, Outside, 21 Oct. 2025
This study demonstrated that dentin microwear can reveal dietary differences between leaf-eating sloths and insect-consuming armadillos, giving us confidence that these tools could reveal dietary information from ground sloth fossils.
—Aditya Reddy Kurre, The Conversation, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sloth
Charna Flam, PEOPLE, 6 Nov. 2025
In the past, the Small Mammals Building has been the home of such animals as fruit bats, sloths, porcupines, armadillos, tamarins, otters, lemurs and mongooses.
—Jim Higgins, jsonline.com, 28 Oct. 2025
While everyone else hustles about, the sloth knows that in slowness there is safety and success.
—Kate Siber, Outside, 21 Oct. 2025
This study demonstrated that dentin microwear can reveal dietary differences between leaf-eating sloths and insect-consuming armadillos, giving us confidence that these tools could reveal dietary information from ground sloth fossils.
—Aditya Reddy Kurre, The Conversation, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sloth
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sloth
inertia
Noun
-
Japan’s old, stodgy government is initially too caught up in bureaucratic red tape and inertia to mount a response.—
James Grebey,
Vulture,
9 Jan. 2026
-
Her confinement was not the result of any criminal conduct, but of bureaucratic error compounded by institutional inertia.—
Mike Hellgren,
CBS News,
8 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Sloth.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sloth. Accessed 23 Jan. 2026.
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