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- pronunciation:
- sI
li
- features:
- Word Combinations (adjective), Word History, Word Explorer
| part of speech: |
adjective |
| inflections: |
sillier, silliest |
| definition 1: |
lacking good sense; foolish.
I admit I was a bit silly when I was young, but I've become much wiser.It seemed like a silly idea at first, but later we saw that it was the only practical solution to the problem.It's silly to drive there when it's just a few blocks away.- synonyms:
- daft, dumb, empty-headed, foolish, idiotic, senseless, witless
- antonyms:
- sensible
- similar words:
- asinine, crazy, dizzy, flighty, fool, imbecile, imprudent, inept, mindless, puerile, ridiculous, stupid
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| definition 2: |
not serious or rational; frivolous.
Our uncle was always doing silly things to make us laugh when we were children.Stop making those silly faces and eat your dinner.- synonyms:
- crazy, frivolous, giddy, inane, nonsensical
- antonyms:
- important, staid
- similar words:
- absurd, cockamamie, crackbrained, dizzy, flighty, goofy, loony, preposterous, ridiculous
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| definition 3: |
(informal) dazed.
The blow knocked him silly.- synonyms:
- dazed, stunned
- similar words:
- dizzy, stupid
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| related words: |
childish, credulous, foolish, laughable, playful, senseless, trifling, vain, zany |
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| derivations: |
sillily (adv.), silliness (n.) |
The meaning of silly has changed many times over the centuries. In the 1200s, it meant "happy, fortunate, or holy." It then came to mean "innocent," and then "helpless or weak." By the 1500s, it was used to mean "simple, ignorant, or foolish."
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