Meaning & use
sty
A pen or enclosure where pigs are kept, or, alternatively, a painful swelling on the edge of an eyelid.
See it in a sentence
The farmer hosed down the sty every morning before feeding the pigs their breakfast.
A painful sty formed near her eyelash, so she applied a warm compress to ease it.
A note on using this word
The eyelid sense is also commonly spelled stye; the plural of sty is sties.
Words with a similar meaning
pigpen
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
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