garbage

noun

ˈgär-bij How to pronounce garbage (audio)
Definition of garbagenext
1
as in trash
discarded or useless material the stray dogs were looking for leftover food in the family's garbage

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in nonsense
language, behavior, or ideas that are absurd and contrary to good sense she was just talking garbage when she said that she was taking a loss on the sale of the house

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of garbage In late-nineteenth-century New York, garbage was dumped in the streets, and cholera and yellow fever raged. — Rana Mitter, Harpers Magazine, 4 Aug. 2026 But the ease of generating cheap, low-quality video has the potential to flood the platform with garbage, a threat that has been on the minds of company executives intent on making YouTube feel more, not less, premium. — Max Tani, semafor.com, 3 Aug. 2026 The professionals still know what good looks like, still understand the trade-offs, and still recognize when the AI has produced garbage. — New Atlas, 2 Aug. 2026 The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator later determined the newborn died by homicide, finding that the child died from entrapment after being placed and tied inside a plastic trash bag beneath bloody paper towels and other garbage. — Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 2 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for garbage
Recent Examples of Synonyms for garbage
  1. trash
  2. nonsense
  3. debris
  4. rubbish
  5. junk
  6. nuts
  7. dust
  8. blah
Noun
  • Debris Tree limbs, broken glass, metal, trash, or other materials could fall into or around the water during a storm.
    — Heidi Moawad, Verywell Health, 8 Aug. 2026
  • That amount of waste would fill roughly 440,000 curbside trash bins.
    — Celina Tebor, CNN Money, 8 Aug. 2026
Definition of trash
Noun
  • Anyway, Cunningham faced a ton of nonsense from the onset, mainly from the crowd.
    — Zach Dean OutKick, FOXNews.com, 1 Aug. 2026
  • No Instagram gimmicks, no fusion nonsense, just the best version of something that sounds simple but isn't.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 July 2026
Definition of nonsense
Noun
  • Surveillance footage obtained by The News shows the explosion erupting on the building’s second floor, sending glass and other debris rocketing across the street.
    — Kerry Burke, New York Daily News, 7 Aug. 2026
  • The update was published 10 weeks after the hot fire test anomaly, and in parallel Blue Origin has rapidly been working to clear debris around the sprawling Launch Complex 36-A site in Florida and starting to rebuild a launch tower.
    — Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 6 Aug. 2026
Definition of debris
Noun
  • This comes at the expense of no movement in the wrist, but to be fair, having the lightsaber pointed in any other direction would look rubbish.
    — Matt Gardner, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026
  • Only construction waste will be accepted at the landfill such as, brush and rubbish, concrete, brick, rock, wood, paper, plastics, cardboard and roofing shingles and tiles.
    — Elizabeth Campbell, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1 July 2026
Definition of rubbish
Noun
  • This event underscores the increasing issue of space junk, especially as NASA plans future moonbases.
    — Jamie Carter, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026
  • Trying to get through Master Farseeker’s musings in a section called Poetics of a Jedi was about as straightforward as bartering with a Teedo junk trader.
    — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 27 July 2026
Definition of junk
Noun
  • Some bars with nuts and seeds offer better balance, but many lean more toward dessert than a truly nourishing snack.
    — Lynn Andriani, Martha Stewart, 7 Aug. 2026
  • Fats are found in foods like butter, oils, nuts, meat, and fish.
    — Jillian Kubala, HEALTH, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of nuts
Noun
  • Emory University’s Salamova, who studies indoor exposure, found levels of QACs in dust in daycare and assisted living care facilities to be about three times higher than in residential homes.
    — Sandee LaMotte, CNN Money, 7 Aug. 2026
  • Korean lunar orbiter spots Falcon 9 crash site The collision was expected to create a crater about 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep and throw a plume of dust and rock outward into the air.
    — Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of dust
Noun
  • Frankly, most ballet flats are a bit too blah for this look and would throw off the proportions.
    — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 23 July 2026
  • What used to be a forum for original, quirky, clever remarks by the Daily News’ varied community of smartypants has turned into a gridlock of repetitious venting of old, dumb blah.
    — Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 10 July 2026
Definition of blah

Browse Nearby Words

garb
garbage
garbed
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Garbage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/garbage. Accessed 10 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on garbage

Nglish: Translation of garbage for Spanish Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about garbage

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of pedagogical

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Aug. 7

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
fridge-magnet-letters
Drop a Letter Quiz August 2026 Drop a letter from a word to make a totally diffe...
See All