Meaning of murky in English

murky

adjective

/ˈmɝː.ki/ uk

/ˈmɜː.ki/

murky adjective (DARK/DIRTY)

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dark and dirty or difficult to see through:

The river was brown and murky after the storm.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Opaque

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Describing bad weather

murky adjective (UNPLEASANT SITUATION)

used to describe a situation that is complicated and unpleasant, and about which many facts are not clear:

He became involved in the murky world of international drug-dealing.

I don't want to get into the murky waters of family arguments.

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Complicated and difficult to do

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Uncertainty

(Definition of murky from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

murky | Intermediate English

murky

adjective

/ˈmɜr·ki/

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dark or cloudy:

murky waters

The movie has dumb characters and a murky plot (= it is difficult to understand).

(Definition of murky from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of murky

murky

The whole idea of search neutrality remains murky (though net neutrality's opponents often level the same charge at that idea).

From Ars Technica

This obsession is murky and confusing for those that find themselves under its sway.

From TIME

That's how the notes start, and they only get murkier after that.

From The Atlantic

The first reason is that passengers' routes may be murky.

From Wired

The online audience noticed the murky goings-on and complained.

From Huffington Post

Only 5 percent occurred under the kind of murky circumstances that tend to provoke public outrage.

From Washington Post

I admit the ironborn story is murky to me.

From International Business Times

What's always encouraging is the study's general pointing toward the obscurity and murky complexity of racial origins.

From TIME

But it's murky as to how true this be.

From NPR

The signs so far are murky and suggestive.

From The Atlantic

It's murky and melancholic, ambient at times, but also made to get people up out of their seats.

From NPR

His symptoms are vague (bloating, constipation, weight gain) and his exposure is frequent (breakfast, lunch and dinner), so the connection is murky.

From Huffington Post

The legislation seeks to bring clarity to an area of the law that has been murky since the first test-tube babies were conceived.

From Baltimore Sun

In the murky depths of this presidential campaign without end, it is cleansing to have a moment of clarity.

From Los Angeles Times

The activities of this ring were so low-key that their objectives seem murky and esoteric.

From New York Post

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of murky?