friendly
/ˈfɹɛnd.li/
friendly adjective: generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with in character.
.jpg){kind=link}
Adjective
friendly (comparative friendlier or more friendly, superlative friendliest or most friendly)
- Generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with in character.
- Your cat seems very friendly.
- They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups. The...1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 9
- Synonyms:
- chummy
- Inviting, characteristic of friendliness.
- He gave a friendly smile.
- Synonyms:
- familiar
- Having an easy or accepting relationship with something.
- a user-friendly software program
- a dog-friendly café
- Compatible with, or not damaging to (the compounded noun).
- The cobbled streets aren't very bike-friendly.
- Organic farms only use soil-friendly fertilisers.
- Without any hostility.
- a friendly competition
- a friendly power or state
- Promoting the good of any person; favourable; propitious.
- a friendly breeze or gale
- Coarſe are his Meals, the Fortune of the Chaſe, / Amidſt the running Stream he ſlakes his Thirſt, / Toil's all the Day, and at th' approach of Night / On the firſt friendly Bank he throws him down, / Or reſts his Head upon a Rock 'till Morn: […]1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page 10
- Of or pertaining to friendlies (friendly noun sense 2, below). Also applied to other bipolar confrontations, such as team sports.
- The soldier was killed by friendly fire.
- Being or relating to two or more natural numbers with a common abundancy.
- friendly
- friendly pairs
Noun
friendly (plural friendlies)
- A game which is of no consequence in terms of ranking, betting, etc.
- This match is merely a friendly, so don't worry too much about it.
- Brazil provided a different test from Germany and gave England lessons Southgate will store before he gets his squad together again for friendlies against the Netherlands in Amsterdam and at home to Italy in March.2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-0 Brazil”, in BBC News
- A person or entity on the same side as one's own in a conflict.
- These were speedily routed by the friendlies, who attacked the small force before them in fine style.1898, Ernest Bennett, The Downfall of the Dervishes
- You see, the mission of almost every teenage girl on the loose is to first identify the targets, just like a war. These include the primary objective (the boy), the enemy (other girls), the friendlies (sympathetic girl friends and the boy's family), and unfriendlies (other boys).2008, Dennis Wengert, A Very Healthy Insanity, page 44
Adverb
friendly (comparative more friendly, superlative most friendly)
- In a friendly manner; like a friend.
- And looke we friendly on them when they come:
But if they offer word or violence,
Weele fight fiue hundred men at armes to one,
Before we part with our poſſeſſion: […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC... - And we cannot doubt, our Brothers in Physick [...] will friendly accept, if not countenance our endeavours.1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica
- Synonyms:
- amicably, friendlily
- And looke we friendly on them when they come:
Proper noun capitalized: Friendly
Friendly
- A suburban settlement just west of Sowerby Bridge, Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE0524).
- A census-designated place in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States.
- A neighbourhood of Eugene, Lane County, Oregon, United States.
- A town in Tyler County, West Virginia, United States.
- A surname.
friendly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
friendly in Hindi
- friendly
- दोस्ताना dostānā
- friendly, amicable
- सौहार्दपूर्ण sauhārdapūrṇ
friendly in Tamil
- நட்புணர்வு, நட்பார்ந்த, தோழமையான
friendly in Marathi
- friendly
- स्नेही snehī
friendly in Urdu
- friendly
- دوستانہ dostāna
More languagesFewer languages
- friendly in Bengali
- বন্ধুসুলভ bôndhushulôbh
- friendly in Telugu
- అనుకూలము anukūlamu
- friendly in Malayalam
- ഇണക്കമുള്ള, സഹൃദയമായ, ചേരുന്ന, ഹിതകരം
- friendly in Kannada
- ಮೈತ್ರಿಯ, ಗೆಳೆತನದ, ಸ್ನೇಹಭಾವದ, ಸ್ನೇಹಪೂರ್ಣ
- friendly in Punjabi
- ਦੋਸਤਾਨਾ
- friendly in Gujarati
- મૈત્રીપૂર્ણ
- friendly in Odia
- ବନ୍ଧୁତ୍ୱପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ, ବନ୍ଧୁତ୍ୱପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ |
- friendly in Sanskrit
- मैत्रेय maitréya, मित्र्य mitryà, मैत्र maitrá, स्मेर sméra
- friendly in Sinhala
- යහළු yahaḷu
- friendly in Nepali
- मैत्रीपूर्ण maitrīpūrṇa
- friendly in Tagalog
- palakaibigan
- friendly in Arabic
- لَطِيف laṭīf
- friendly in Malay
- ramah
- friendly in Indonesian
- ramah
- friendly in Persian
- دوستانه dustâne
- friendly in Thai
- กันเอง, เป็นกันเอง bpen-gan-eeng
- friendly in Vietnamese
- thân thiện
Examples of friendly in a sentence
- the use of environmentally friendly packaging
- Our sandwiches are made with dolphin-friendly tuna.
- The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits.1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co....
- The inter-working of the Bodensee-Toggenburg, Swiss South-Eastern and Swiss Federal Railways is of a most friendly kind.1956 January, 'Mercury', “The Railways of North-East Switzerland”, in Railway Magazine, page 23:
- An offbeat pizza restaurant, which also serves pasta and salads, and bills itself as low-fat and heart-friendly.2010, Tony Pinchuck, Barbara McCrea, Donald Reid, Ross Velton, The Rough Guide to South Africa, 6th edition, London: Rough Guides, →ISBN...
- in friendly relations with his moderate opponents1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter II, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify...
Synonyms of friendly
8 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of friendly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | friendlier |
| comparative | more friendly |
| superlative | friendliest |
| superlative | most friendly |
| Noun | |
| plural | friendlies |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more friendly |
| superlative | most friendly |
Origin of friendly
From Middle English frendly, freendly, frendely, frendlich, from Old English frēondlīċ, from Proto-Germanic *frijōndlīkaz, equivalent to friend + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian früntelk, fjuntelk (“friendly”), West Frisian freonlik (“friendly”), Dutch vriendelijk (“friendly”), German Low German fründelk, frünnelk (“friendly”), German freundlich (“friendly”). Doublet of friendlike.
From Middle English frendly, frendliche, from Old English frēondlīċe (“in a friendly manner”), equivalent to friend + -ly.
Words formed from friendly
- biofriendly
- floor-friendly
- friendliness
- friendly amendment
- friendly fire
- friendly fraud
- friendly giant
- friendlyish
- Friendly Islands
- friendly lead
- friendly match
- friendly name
- friendly number
- friendly society
- friendly suit
- friendly URL
- guest-friendly
- heterofriendly
- make friendly
- overfriendly
- poz friendly
- search-engine-friendly
- superfriendly
Phrases with friendly
Questions about friendly
- What does friendly mean?
- Friendly means generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with in character.
- What is friendly in Hindi?
- Friendly in Hindi is दोस्ताना (dostānā), सौहार्दपूर्ण (sauhārdapūrṇ). See Friendly meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use friendly in a sentence?
- the use of environmentally friendly packaging
- What part of speech is friendly?
- Friendly can be an adjective, a noun, an adverb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce friendly?
- Friendly is pronounced /ˈfɹɛnd.li/.
Words near friendly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: friendly (page history and authors); Friendly (page history and authors); दोस्ताना (Hindi) (page history and authors); friendly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); स्नेही (Marathi) (page history and authors); دوستانہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); বন্ধুসুলভ (Bengali) (page history and authors); అనుకూలము (Telugu) (page history and authors); friendly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); friendly (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); friendly (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); friendly (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); friendly (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); मित्र्य (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); යහළු (Sinhala) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-friendly.ogg.
Cite this entry: “friendly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/friendly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.