Meaning & use

shallow

adjective·Everyday

Having little depth, either physically or in terms of thought, feeling, or seriousness.

See it in a sentence

The children splashed safely in the shallow end of the pool.

Critics dismissed the film's plot as shallow, lacking any real emotional depth.

A note on using this word

Shallow describes both literal depth (shallow water) and figurative lack of depth in a person's character or a piece of work.

Words with a similar meaning

superficialsurface-level

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

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