Word.ws English Dictionary

lindy

/ˈlɪndi/

lindy noun: a jitterbug, originated in Harlem, New York. Also the alternative form of Lindy.

Noun (1)

lindy (plural lindys or lindies)

  1. A jitterbug, originated in Harlem, New York.

Verb

lindy (third-person singular simple present lindies, present participle lindying, simple past and past participle lindied)

  1. (intransitive) To perform this dance.

Proper noun capitalized: Lindy

Lindy

  1. A diminutive of the female given names Linda, Lindsay, and Linnet.
    • Lindy herself hated the name Lindy. She said it sounded like a girl in pink gingham. At the beginning of this school year she'd started making all the teachers address her by her full name, Linnet.2004, Anne Tyler, The Amateur Marriage, →ISBN, page 105
  2. A unisex given name.
  3. (colloquial) Nickname of US aviator Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974).
    • It seems a fair enough deduction, since it is known that Corrigan was working at the Ryan Airplane factory while Lindy's plane, "Spirit of St. Louis," was being built there and he was one of those who helped put together that famous craft.1938 October, “Poor Boy Still Makes Good”, in Popular Mechanics, page 149

Noun (2) capitalized: Lindy

Lindy (plural Lindys)

  1. A certain dance step.
  2. A musical composition suitable for such a dance.
    • "These damned Lindys!" bubbled Janice. "Don't they play anything for old married folks?"2002, Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance, page 234
  3. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Lindy Hop
    • The Lindy Hop picked up where the Charleston left off, with the first swing-outs, breakaways and "shine steps" added to a basic off-beat two-step. In its early days the Lindy flourished only in lower strata of society.1943 August 23, LIFE

Adjective capitalized: Lindy

Lindy (comparative more Lindy or Lindier, superlative most Lindy or Lindiest)

  1. (neologism) Long-lasting; having a proven track record and thus predicted by the Lindy effect to remain relevant far into the future.
    • I will never stop programming in C, the lindiest language2021 May 28, @luke_metro, Twitter (post), archived from the original on 28 Jul 2026
    • Breakfast: not Lindy, though coffee gets in under the wire.2021 June 17, Ezra Marcus, “What is the Lindy Effect?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Jul 2026

Also used as

lindy is also the alternative form of Lindy.

Forms of lindy

Noun
plurallindys
plurallindies
pluralLindys
Verb
third-person singular presentlindies
present participlelindying
past participlelindied
pastlindied
Adjective
comparativemore lindy
comparativelindier
superlativemost lindy
superlativelindiest
comparativemore Lindy
comparativeLindier
superlativemost Lindy
superlativeLindiest

Origin of lindy

Probably from Lindy, the nickname of US aviator Charles A. Lindbergh.

Diminutives with -y.

Words formed from lindy

Phrases with lindy

Questions about lindy

What does lindy mean?
Lindy means a jitterbug, originated in Harlem, New York.
What part of speech is lindy?
Lindy can be a noun, a verb, a proper noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce lindy?
Lindy is pronounced /ˈlɪndi/.
What is the plural of lindy?
The plural of lindy is lindys.

Words near lindy in the dictionary

  1. Lindvalls
  2. lindworm
  3. lindworms
  4. lindwyrm
  5. lindwyrms
  6. lindy
  7. Lindy effect
  8. lindy hop
  9. lindy hopping
  10. lindy hops
  11. lindy-hop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lindy (page history and authors); Lindy (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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Cite this entry: “lindy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lindy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.