Library / English Dictionary

SLOTH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Apathy and inactivity in the practice of virtue (personified as one of the deadly sins)

Synonyms:

acedia; laziness; sloth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("sloth" is a kind of...):

deadly sin; mortal sin (an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of several slow-moving arboreal mammals of South America and Central America; they hang from branches back downward and feed on leaves and fruits

Synonyms:

sloth; tree sloth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("sloth" is a kind of...):

edentate (primitive terrestrial mammal with few if any teeth; of tropical Central America and South America)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sloth"):

ai; Bradypus tridactylus; three-toed sloth (a sloth that has three long claws on each forefoot and each hindfoot)

Choloepus didactylus; two-toed sloth; unai; unau (relatively small fast-moving sloth with two long claws on each front foot)

Choloepus hoffmanni; two-toed sloth; unai; unau (a sloth of Central America that has two long claws on each forefoot and three long claws on each hindfoot)

Holonyms ("sloth" is a member of...):

Bradypodidae; family Bradypodidae (a family of edentates comprising the true sloths)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A disinclination to work or exert yourself

Synonyms:

sloth; slothfulness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("sloth" is a kind of...):

disinclination; hesitancy; hesitation; indisposition; reluctance (a certain degree of unwillingness)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Astonishingly, three-toed sloths, which are more specialized to their environment, expend as little as 460 kilojoules of energy a day, the equivalent of burning a mere 110 calories — roughly the same number of calories in a baked potato.

(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)