Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

wily

/ˈwaɪ.li/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.80 in modern English

Syllables: wi-ly
IPA: /ˈwaɪ.li/

10

Scrabble Score

4

Letters

2

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Sly, cunning, full of tricks.

Example Sentences

"Horatio's new girlfriend is a wily coquette, and poor Horatio is too smitten to see it."
"Of all the medical monsters Peter Hotez could have set out to slay, the Yale University researcher could not have chosen a more wily and obscure villain than the hookworm."

Etymology

From Middle English wily, wiley, wyly. By surface analysis, wil(e) + -y.

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: wily

Inflected Forms

wilier (comparative) more wily (comparative) wiliest (superlative) most wily (superlative)

Derived Forms

overwily unwily wilily wiliness

Phrases

wily beguily

Frequently Paired Words

learned wise

Synonyms

astute artful cautelous crafty cunning devious diabolical foxlike foxy frood guileful shrewd

Homonyms

Wiley Wylie Wylye

Antonyms

guileless gullible honest ingenuous naive unwise

Rhymes With

highly riley miley wiley smiley o'reilly reilly wylie slyly shyly wryly kiley

Questions

How do you pronounce wily?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈwaɪ.li/.
What does wily mean?: Sly, cunning, full of tricks.
Where does wily come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce wily

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