pretty
/ˈpɹɪt.i/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.38 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Pleasant to the sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.
adj
Of objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.
adj
Fine-looking; only superficially attractive; initially appealing but having little substance; see petty.
Derogatory
adj
Awkward, unpleasant, bad.
Example Sentences
- "Having brought it to a close, he took his way to the Kursaal. The great German watering-place is one of the prettiest nooks in Europe, and of a summer evening in the gaming days, five-and-twenty years ago, it was one of the most brilliant scenes."
- "Hal Smith, manager of the Ferry Field theatre, Detroit, one of the largest and prettiest outskirt houses in town, played Metro's "Revelation" for three days last week"
- "The face which emerged was not reassuring.[…]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls."
- "To escape a violent beating from sailors to whom he has sold a non-functioning car, Jerry takes his stepfamily for a holiday in a trailer park miles away, where, miraculously, young Nick meets a very pretty young woman called Sheeni, played by Portia Doubleday."
- "Some fans may have mistaken the album’s floatiness for aimlessness, but Mr. Mercer’s songs have never been sneakier, or prettier."
- "'Petit Posy' brassicas […] are a cross between kale and brussels sprouts, and are really very pretty with a mild, sweet taste."
Etymology
From Middle English prety, preti, praty, prati, from Old English prættiġ (“tricky, crafty, sly, cunning, wily, astute”), from Proto-West Germanic *prattug, from Proto-Germanic *prattugaz (“boastful, sly, slick, deceitful, tricky, cunning”), corresponding to prat (“trick”) + -y. Doublet of pratty. Cognate with Dutch prettig (“nice, pleasant”), Low German prettig (“funny”), Icelandic prettugur (“deceitful, tricky”). For the semantic development, compare canny, clever, cute.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɹɪt.i/
- British English: /ˈpɹɪt.i/
Usage
- Derogatory
- British usage
- Dated
Inflected Forms
prettier (comparative)
prettiest (superlative)
pooty (alternative)
purdy (alternative)
purty (alternative)
pratty (alternative, dialectal)
prettie (alternative, obsolete)
pretie (alternative, obsolete)
pretties (plural)
pretties (present, singular)
prettying (participle, present)
prettied (participle, past)