Word.ws English Dictionary

kelly

/ˈkɛli/

kelly noun: a square or hexagonal pipe that is turned in order to rotate the rotary table of a drilling rig.

Noun (1)

kelly (plural kellies)

  1. A square or hexagonal pipe that is turned in order to rotate the rotary table of a drilling rig.
  2. A roly-poly (toy).
    • Tumblers, tilters and kellys are those toys which have a circular base with a weighted end. They sway to and fro and are not knocked completely over. They derive from the East and have various names, but most represent stability in some form or another.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 169

Noun (2)

kelly

  1. Kelly green.
    • Today there is no color or fabric that is out for girl or teen chubbies. Plaids, big, bold block designs, dark or light grounds, heavy textured wools, fleeces and brilliant colors of red, kelly or green, odd or off shades of rust, lavender, and other colors in the fashion cycle are now adapted in...1947, Girls' and Teens' Merchandiser: The National Trade Magazine for the Girls' and Teens' Industrypage=31
    • Heart's Desire—20 inch silk chiffon square—navy and shocking, grey and turquoise, brown and kelly, or green and violet, on white ground. $ 4.00 Matching contour belt […]1953, Harold Wallace Ross, William Shawn, Tina Brown, David Remnick, Katharine Sergeant Angell White, Rea Irvin, Roger Angell, The New Yorker, page 58

Proper noun capitalized: Kelly

Kelly (countable and uncountable, plural Kellies or (nonstandard) Kellys)

  1. A surname from Irish, Anglicised from the Irish Ó Ceallaigh.
    • A better and more straightforward appeal, though less cool, was made to him by Hugh Kelly, - - - The play was so successful, and Garrick said so much of it that Lord Pembroke was eager to be back from Paris to see it, though he said, with true aristocratic pride, that he could expect very little...1867, Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald, The Life of David Garrick, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, published 1899, page 319
    • One way to see the radicalization of the likes of Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Megyn Kelly is that they are adopting Fuentes-Lite positions on issues like immigration and vaccines.2025 November 1, Richard Hanania, “It’s the Groypers’ America now We’re just living in it”, in UnHerd, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2025
  2. A male given name transferred from the surname.
  3. A female given name transferred from the surname, popular from the 1960s to the 1990s.
    • On the walls of the salon are blown-up photos of models with dazzling teeth and ingeniously tousled hair - women with names like Kelly and Dawn, who come from tiny towns in Texas and Washington, who are tall and thin, and who don't appear to be burdened by any pasts to speak of.1986, Daphne Merkin, chapter 1986, in Enchantment, Harcourt Brace Jovanovi, →ISBN, page 207
    • One Nation, a new 501(c)4 linked to the Karl-Rove-backed American Crossroads super PAC, is spending more than $1.9 million on print, radio and digital ads highlighting the efforts of Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman...2015 May 12, Alexandra Jaffe, “First on CNN: New Rove-linked group spends $2M to boost GOP incumbents”, in CNN
  4. An unincorporated community in Nemaha County, Kansas.
  5. An unincorporated community in Christian County, Kentucky.
  6. An unincorporated community in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana.
  7. A census-designated place in Bladen County, North Carolina.
  8. An unincorporated community in Grand Forks County, North Dakota.
  9. A township in Union County, Pennsylvania.
  10. An unincorporated community in Collin County, Texas.
  11. An unincorporated community in Logan County, West Virginia.
  12. A town in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
Show 4 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. An unincorporated community in the town of Clearfield, Juneau County, Wisconsin.
  2. A census-designated place in Teton County, Wyoming.
  3. A small village and civil parish (without a council) in West Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SX3981).
  4. A locality on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, Australia.

Noun (3) capitalized: Kelly

Kelly

  1. Kelly green.
    • ([…] something special in Kelly or red), whose narrow shawl collar has a slight V in back and knots at the throat in front.1949 November 19, The New Yorker, volume 25, page 88
    • […] red or Kelly, with curved yoke and collar; and garments in skipper, pink, red, black or gray, with covered buttons on a yoked back.1949, Industrial Council of Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers, inc, Current Bulletin

kelly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

kelly in Hindi

केली, केल्ली

kelly in Tamil

கெல்லி

kelly in Marathi

कॅली

kelly in Urdu

کیلی
More languagesFewer languages
kelly in Bengali
কেলি
kelly in Telugu
కెల్లీ, కెల్లి, కేల్లీ
kelly in Malayalam
കെല്ലി
kelly in Kannada
ಕೆಲ್ಲಿ, ಕೆಲ್ಲಿಯು
kelly in Punjabi
ਕੈਲੀ
kelly in Gujarati
કેલી, કેલ્લી
kelly in Odia
କେଲି, କେଲ୍ଲୀ, କେଲ୍ଲି
kelly in Nepali
केली, केल्ली, केलि

Forms of kelly

Noun
pluralkellies
Proper noun
pluralKellies
alternative formKelley
alternative formKelli
alternative formKellie
plural (nonstandard)Kellys

Origin of kelly

See kelly green.

Borrowed from Irish Ó Ceallaigh. Doublet of Kellogg and Callahan.

Words formed from kelly

Phrases with kelly

1 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with kelly

15 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about kelly

What does kelly mean?
Kelly means a square or hexagonal pipe that is turned in order to rotate the rotary table of a drilling rig.
What is kelly in Hindi?
Kelly in Hindi is केली, केल्ली. See Kelly meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is kelly?
Kelly can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce kelly?
Kelly is pronounced /ˈkɛli/.
What is the plural of kelly?
The plural of kelly is kellies.

Words near kelly in the dictionary

  1. Kelloughs
  2. kells
  3. Kellswater
  4. Kellum
  5. Kellums
  6. kelly
  7. Kelly Bray
  8. Kelly Bundy
  9. Kelly criterion
  10. kelly drive
  11. kelly drives

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kelly (page history and authors); Kelly (page history and authors); kelly (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kelly (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-kelly.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-Kelly.wav.

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