Word.ws English Dictionary

blithe

/blaɪð/

blithe adjective: casually careless or indifferent; showing a lack of concern; nonchalant.

Adjective

blithe (comparative blither, superlative blithest)

  1. Casually careless or indifferent; showing a lack of concern; nonchalant.
    • She had a blithe disregard of cultures outside the United States.
    • From mother and nurse it was a guerilla^([sic]) gunfire of commands, and blithe, quicksilver disobedience from the three blonde, never-still little girls.1913–1921, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “England, My England”, in England My England and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Seltzer, published 24 October 1922, →OCLC, page 23
  2. (Scotland, elsewhere dated or literary) Cheerful, happy.
    • And now ſweet Emperour be blithe againe,
      And bury all thy feare in my deuiſes.c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • For that fair femal Troop thou ſawſt, that ſeemd
      Of Goddeſſes, ſo blithe, ſo ſmooth, ſo gay,
      Yet empty of good wherein conſiſts,
      Womans domeſtic honour and chief praiſe; […]1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  3. (obsolete) Fair, beautiful, comely; gracious, pleasant and attractive in manner.
    • Thy garters fringed with the golde,
      And siluer aglets hanging by,
      Which made thee blithe for to beholde,
      And yet thou wouldst not loue me.1878 [1584], Clement Robinson, “A new Courtly Sonet, of the Lady Greensleeues” (stanza 10), in Edward Arber, editor, A Handful of Pleasant Delights
    • There on Beds of Violets blew,
      And freſh-blown Roſes waſht in dew,
      Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair,
      So buckſom, blith, and debonair.a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 31

Proper noun capitalized: Blithe

Blithe

  1. A river in Staffordshire, England, which joins the River Trent.

blithe meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

blithe in Urdu

دلشاد, مگن, مسرور, زندہ دل

blithe in Bengali

নিরুদ্বেগ ও প্রফুল্ল

blithe in Malayalam

സന്തോഷകരമായ

blithe in Kannada

ಅವಿವೇಕದ, ಅರ್ಥಶೂನ್ಯತೆಯಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ, ಗೆಲುವಿನ, ಸಂತೋಷದ

Examples of blithe in a sentence

  • A merry Christmas to you!" And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 158:
  • To-night, however, she was even in a blither mood than usual.1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter III, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley]...

All 11 example sentences with blithe

Forms of blithe

comparativeblither
superlativeblithest
alternative formblythe

Origin of blithe

From Middle English blithe (“glad, happy, joyful; causing joy, joyous; gentle, mild; gracious, merciful; bright, shining; beautiful, fair”) [and other forms], from Old English blīþe (“happy, gentle”), from Proto-West Germanic *blīþī, from Proto-Germanic *blīþiz (“friendly; gentle, mild; pleasing”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlī- (“fine; light; pleasant”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“shiny; white”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian bliede (“glad, cheerful, merry”), West Frisian bliid (“cheerful, glad”), Dutch blij (“happy”), German Low German blied (“happy, lucky”).

Likely derived from the Old English adjective blīþe (“joyful, merry”).

Words formed from blithe

Words that rhyme with blithe

Questions about blithe

What does blithe mean?
Blithe means casually careless or indifferent; showing a lack of concern; nonchalant.
What is blithe in Urdu?
Blithe in Urdu is دلشاد, مگن, مسرور. See Blithe meaning in Urdu.
How do you use blithe in a sentence?
A merry Christmas to you!" And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.
What part of speech is blithe?
Blithe can be an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce blithe?
Blithe is pronounced /blaɪð/ (UK).

Words near blithe in the dictionary

  1. Blisworth
  2. blit
  3. Blitar
  4. blite
  5. blites
  6. blithe
  7. Blithedale
  8. blitheful
  9. blithefully
  10. blithefulness
  11. blithehearted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blithe (page history and authors); Blithe (page history and authors); blithe (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blithe (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blithe (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); blithe (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-blithe.ogg, En-us-blithe.ogg.

Cite this entry: “blithe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blithe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.