Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

polly

/ˈpɒli/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.40 in modern English

Syllables: pol-ly
IPA: /ˈpɒli/

10

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

2

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

name

A female given name from Hebrew.

name

A common given name for a parrot.

noun

A prefect at Uppingham School in Rutland, England.

British usage; Slang

Example Sentences

""Well, Johnny," she replied, rather hurt, "if you want to call me something else, you may do so; but I will not have any outlandish, ridiculous names. I don't like it much, but if you really wish it, you may call me Polly." Polly, indeed! Mary was getting more and more prosaic."
"Polly wants a cracker!"

Etymology

Nickname for Mary, created by rhyming with Molly.

Usage

British usage
Slang

Inflected Forms

Pollies (plural)

Derived Forms

Pollyanna

Phrases

positive Polly poly-

Frequently Paired Words

Polidora poly-

Homonyms

poly Pali (father-bother merger)

Rhymes With

ali holly molly bali poly jolly dolly mali somali trolley folly cali

Questions

How do you pronounce polly?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈpɒli/.
What does polly mean?: A female given name from Hebrew.
Where does polly come from?: Nickname for Mary, created by rhyming with Molly.

How to pronounce polly

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “polly”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈpɒli/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “polly”.
Repeat and practice — Say “polly” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.