🇬🇧 Squalor meaning: English Vocabulary Flash Card

Squalor is when a place is extremely dirty, smelly, and messy, usually because people don’t have enough money or help to keep it clean. Imagine a room where the trash is everywhere, the floor is sticky, old food is growing fuzzy mold, and nobody has cleaned anything for a very long time—that gross, unhealthy mess is called squalor.

Grandma said our playroom was in such squalor that even the vacuum cleaner wrote a resignation letter.

The fairy refused to grant wishes in a room of squalor and instead wished for a mop and a bucket.

Mom said my room was so close to squalor that even the dust bunnies were wearing gas masks.

The ogre didn’t scare people; it was the squalor of his cave that had knights running away in tears.

The garbage can reached such squalor that the lid tried to escape and start a cleaner life elsewhere.

He stepped into squalor: old food, damp cloths, and a smell that hit like wet earth. The squalor wrapped the small room; rats ran through squalor under the bed. He scooped up the thin boy, held him away from squalor, carried him out, shut the door, and cried at the squalor left behind.

This word is at the C2 level, which means it represents the highest mastery of English. It’s often used in specialized or highly formal contexts and helps you communicate with precision and subtlety, much like a native speaker.

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