Littered
/ˈlɪtərd/
adjectiveverbB2past tense, past participle
Definition
"Littered" describes a place or surface that has many small pieces of trash, paper, or other objects spread around. It can also mean something is full of many things in a messy or careless way. Usually, it shows a negative situation where things are not clean or organized.
Was this helpful?
See It in Action
Covered with trash or small objects in a messy way
- •The playground was littered with candy wrappers.
- •After the festival, the streets were littered with plastic cups.
- •His desk was littered with papers and books.
Filled or scattered with many things (not always trash)
- •The report was littered with errors.
- •The garden was littered with fallen leaves.
- •The book was littered with interesting facts.
Make It Stick
- ✓Think of "littered" like "messy," but specifically with trash or small objects all over a place.
- ✓Picture a park after a busy picnic, with food wrappers, cups, and papers scattered on the grass.
- ✓It's the feeling you get when you see a street covered with trash and it makes you want to clean it up.
- ✓Sounds like "LIT-tered" → imagine little "lit" (small light) objects scattered everywhere like tiny glowing pieces.
- ✓Think of a story where a beach is littered after a big party, showing carelessness.
- ✓NOT like "clean" (neat and free of trash), "littered" means the opposite—dirty and untidy.
- ✓NOT like "decorated" (arranged nicely), "littered" means things are spread in a disorderly way.
- ✓NOT like "filled" (full in a good way), "littered" usually means filled with unwanted or messy things.
Try Other Words
- •Scattered: spread around in different places (Use when things are spread but not necessarily trash)
- •Strewn: thrown or spread carelessly (Use when emphasizing careless spreading)
- •Covered: completely over a surface (Use when the surface is fully or mostly full of something)
- •Messy: not neat or clean (Use when the disorder is general, not just trash)
Unboxing
- •Word parts: "litter" (small pieces of trash, or to make a place messy) + "-ed" (past tense or adjective form)
- •Etymology: From Old French "litiere" meaning "bedding" or "straw," later used for scattered debris or trash
- •Historical development: Originally meant straw or bedding for animals, then came to mean scattered trash or debris on the ground
- •Modern usage: Commonly used to describe places with trash or many small things spread around in a messy way
Reflect & Connect
•How does seeing a place littered affect your feelings about that place?
•Can something be littered in a positive way, or is it always negative? Why?
Fill in the blanks
1.The park was littered with ___ after the weekend festival, making it look very untidy.
2.When a street is littered, it usually means people did not ___ their trash properly.
3.Unlike a clean room, a desk littered with papers shows ___ and disorder.
4.The beach was littered with shells and seaweed, which is ___ from trash.
5.The report was littered with mistakes, so the teacher asked the student to ___ it again.
6.They tried to clean the area, but the ground was still littered ___ small pieces of plastic.
7.When a place is littered, it often causes people to feel ___ or unhappy about the environment.