silly
/ˈsɪl.i/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.39 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
adj
Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
adj
Example Sentences
- "They were laughing at a silly joke."
- "silly grin"
- "This is the silliest stuffe, that euer I heard."
- "I remember, before the Dwarf left the Queen, he followed us one day into thoſe gardens, and my Nurſe having ſet me down, he and I being cloſe together, near ſome Dwarf Apple trees, I muſt need ſhew my Wit, by a ſilly Alluſion between him and the Trees, which happens to hold in their Language as it doth in ours."
- "Well sir, I have a silly walk and I'd like to obtain a Government grant to help me develop it."
- "He cannot achieve celebrity by covering himself with diamonds... or by giving a silly price for a hack."
Etymology
From Middle English seely, sēlī, from Old English sǣliġ, ġesǣliġ (“lucky, fortunate”), from Proto-West Germanic *sālīg, from *sāli; equivalent to seel (“happiness, bliss”) + -y. Doublet of Seelie. The semantic evolution is “lucky” to “innocent” to “naive” to “foolish”. Compare the similar evolution of daft (originally meaning “accommodating”), and almost the reverse with nice (originally meaning “ignorant”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Synonyms
charming
Also see Thesaurus:foolish
punch-drunk
slaphappy
pathetic
ridiculous
airheaded
dizzy
empty-headed
featherbrained
giddy
light-headed
Homonyms
Silly
Scilly