Skip to main content
sooty

sooty

6 3.2
Black or dark from fine dust left by fire
  • adjective
  • /ˈsuːti/
translation icon : sucio
  • Around us, crowds now took note of the same dread vision, looming over the sooty Montparnasse railway station.
  • sooty mangabey
  • sooty tern nests

You know the one, the one with The Dirty beak and sooty feathers, the grimy swan.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Gasps filled the amphitheater as the sooty, ragged children were revealed.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Ike slowly lifted a sooty hand to wipe back the sweat from his brow.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Outside, rain is falling, serious and slow, filling the cellar with sooty brown water.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Look at her little sooty tail and her little sooty paws.

  • "I take a deep breath of sooty Bronx air and let it out.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • The air is so sooty and damp, our clothes will be ready... for the Goodwill after this.

  • Dan stood outside his daughter's apartment, on the sooty tiled terrace from which he had seen the tower collapse.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • The new snow covered the mounds of graying old snow pitted with sooty black.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Her eyes were dark grey, shadowed by sooty black lashes, and her curving mouth was full and sweet.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • After the fireplace was used all winter, the walls were covered in sooty marks.

Synonyms

black
vssooty
401 1.0

Covered in dirt or soot so it looks dark

focuses on being dark specifically from soot rather than any dirt
jet-black
vssooty
3 3.9

Very black like coal or a dark night

highlights darkness due to soot appearance rather than polished intensity
coal-black
vssooty
1 4.1

A very deep black color like coal

stresses a soot-like covering or look rather than pure color depth
smutty
vssooty
1 5.6

Covered in black soot or dirt

emphasizes the dark appearance itself rather than just being dirty
sooty-black
vssooty
4.7

Very deep black like soot

is the adjective for being dark or covered in soot
soot-black
vssooty
5.5

Very black in color like dust left by a fire

is the adjective for being dark or covered in soot
soot black
vssooty
4.9

A very dark color like the black dust from a fire

describes darkness by appearance or actual soot covering
pitchy
vssooty
7.9

Completely black like coal

focuses on a soot-covered look rather than merely tar-like darkness

Antonyms

1.0

Free from dirt or harmful things

41 2.5

Completely clean with no stains or dirt

Compounds

Very deep black like soot

How Sooty

blackened
3.4
sooty
6 3.2
clean
1.0

Surface Forms

sooty positive

Morphology

sooty = soot (transparent) = soot + y

The adjective is directly formed from the noun 'soot' with the productive suffix '-y' meaning 'covered with' or 'characterized by'.

Etymology

Sooty comes from the simple noun soot, the black dust made by fire, plus the ending -y meaning 'full of' or 'like'. So, sooty means 'covered with' or 'black like' soot, like a chimney sweep's dark face.