What does the word “shady” mean?

The word “shady”, as commonly used by people, is used to describe people or things that are questionable or seem unreliable and suspicious. The word can be used to describe people, businesses, websites, and basically anything that seems suspicious.

The other usage of the word is to describe something that is of a darker color, or something that provides shade from the sun.

This can be confusing for people who have no experience with how the word is used. I remember reading a discussion forum in which somebody (clearly from America) described a website as “shady”. Then somebody else from another country responded by saying “And why do you say it is shady, is it because color combination?”. Clearly, this person did not understand the way that the word was being used – it meant that the website was suspicious and not trust-worthy, not that the colors were off.

Here’s an example of it’s usage:

Shady In a Sentence




“I’ve heard that Tom sells drugs in his 
spare time.  He is really shady.”



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