Shadowy

How to spell shadowy

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce shadowy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does shadowy mean?

1. adjectiveFull of shadow, dimly lit, or hard to see clearly.
2. adjectiveMysterious, secretive, or of doubtful honesty.

Shadowy in a sentence

• The shadowy corner of the warehouse was too dark to search properly.

• The company was funded by a shadowy network of offshore investors.

• A shadowy shape moved behind the frosted glass before she could focus on it.

• Reporters spent months trying to identify the shadowy figure behind the leaks.

Where does shadowy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word is built on the native Old English noun sceadu, which meant 'shade' or 'darkness' and is the direct ancestor of the modern word 'shadow'. To this Germanic root English added the everyday adjective ending -y, which means 'full of' or 'characterised by', giving a word that literally describes something filled with shadow. The base sense, 'dim and shaded', appears in English by the late medieval period, and the spelling settled with the familiar -ow that also closes 'window' and 'meadow'. From the literal darkness the meaning easily drifted to 'faint and indistinct', because anything seen in shadow is hard to make out, and from there to 'mysterious' or 'of doubtful honesty', as in a shadowy figure or a shadowy deal. The same sceadu root quietly survives in the close relatives 'shade' and 'overshadow', which can be a useful reminder that the word keeps the d of shadow rather than any double letter.

How the word is built

• shadow (from Old English sceadu: shade, darkness)
• -y (adjective suffix: full of, characterised by)