Word.ws English Dictionary

lively

/ˈlaɪvli//ˈlaɪv.li/

lively adjective: full of life; energetic, vivacious.

Adjective

lively (comparative livelier, superlative liveliest)

  1. Full of life; energetic, vivacious.
    • But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haſt, / With youthful ſteps? much livelier then e're while / He ſeems.1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 85, lines...
    • [...] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of railway viaducts, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 77
    Synonyms:
    high-spirited
  2. Bright, glowing, vivid; strong, vigorous.
    • The colours of the prism are manifestly more full, intense, and lively that those of natural bodies.1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light
    • His faith must be not only living, but lively too.1688, Robert South, Sacramental Preparation: Set forth in a Sermon on Matthew 5, 12.
    Synonyms:
    intense, smart
  3. (archaic) Endowed with or manifesting life; living.
    • chaplets of gold and silver resembling lively flowers and leavesc. 1600, Philemon Holland
    Synonyms:
    extant
  4. (archaic) Representing life; lifelike.
    • I spied the lively picture of my father.1632, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, The Fatal Dowry
  5. (archaic) Airy; animated; spirited.
    • From grave to gay, from lively to ſevere, [...]1734, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle IV, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 80, line 775
  6. Fizzy; foamy; tending to produce a large head in the glass.
    Synonyms:
    frothy, spumescent

Noun

lively (plural livelies)

  1. (informal) Term of address.
    • Speak the word, my livelies, and I'll pilot her in.1846, Herman Melville, Typee

Adverb

lively (comparative more lively, superlative most lively)

  1. Vigorously.
  2. Vibrantly, vividly.
  3. (obsolete) In a lifelike manner.
    • Him to a dainty flowre she did transmew, / Which in that cloth was wrought, as if it liuely grew.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • the Painter Protogenes […] having perfected the image of a wearie and panting dog, […] but being unable, as he desired, lively to represent the drivel or slaver of his mouth, vexed against his owne worke, took his spunge, and moist as it was with divers colours, threw it at the picture […]., Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.220-1

Proper noun capitalized: Lively

Lively

  1. A characteristical surname.
  2. An urban area of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
  3. An unincorporated community in Benton County, Missouri.
  4. An unincorporated community in Kaufman County, Texas.
  5. An unincorporated community in Lancaster County, Virginia.
  6. An unincorporated community in Fayette County, West Virginia.

lively meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

lively in Hindi

full of life
जीवंत jīvant

lively in Tamil

உயிர்த்துடிப்பான, உவகை தருகிற, எழுச்சியூட்டுகின்ற, கிளர்ச்சியான, உற்சாகமான

lively in Marathi

lively, jovial; someone with a cheerful disposition
हास्यमुख hāsyamukh
a lively, sharp and attractive individual
फटाका phaṭākā

lively in Urdu

lively
روچک rocak
More languagesFewer languages
lively in Bengali
প্রাণবন্ত, চনমনে, উৎসাহী
lively in Malayalam
സജീവം sajīvaṁ, ഊഷ്മള ūṣmaḷa
lively in Kannada
ಸಜೀವ, ಚುರುಕಾದ, ಉಲ್ಲಾಸದ, ತೇಜಸ್ಸುಳ್ಳ
lively in Odia
ପ୍ରାଣବନ୍ତ
lively in Arabic
دَجِر dajir

Examples of lively in a sentence

  • There was a strange quiet in the normally very lively plaza.
  • The book evokes a detailed and lively picture of what life was like in the 19th century.
  • Lively show tunes being belted out by the pianist on the grand piano.

All 40 example sentences with lively

Synonyms of lively

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of lively

Forms of lively

Adjective
comparativelivelier
superlativeliveliest
alternative formlifely
Noun
plurallivelies
Adverb
comparativemore lively
superlativemost lively

Origin of lively

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċ (“living, lively, long-lived, necessary to life, vital”), from Proto-West Germanic *lībalīk (“living, lively”), equivalent to life + -ly. Cognate with Scots lively, lifely (“of or pertaining to life, vital, living, life-like”), Old High German līblīh (“living, animated”), German leiblich (“bodily, corporeal”). Doublet of lifely and lifelike.

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċe, equivalent to life + -ly.

From lively.

Words formed from lively

Phrases with lively

Questions about lively

What does lively mean?
Lively means full of life; energetic, vivacious.
What is lively in Hindi?
Lively in Hindi is जीवंत (jīvant). See Lively meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is lively?
Lively can be an adjective, a noun, an adverb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce lively?
Lively is pronounced /ˈlaɪv.li/ (UK).

Words near lively in the dictionary

  1. livelong
  2. livelongs
  3. livelood
  4. liveloods
  5. Livelsberger
  6. lively
  7. lively as a grig
  8. livelyhood
  9. liven
  10. liven up
  11. livened

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lively (page history and authors); Lively (page history and authors); lively (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); फटाका (Marathi) (page history and authors); روچک (Urdu) (page history and authors); Lively (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ഊഷ്മള (Malayalam) (page history and authors); lively (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lively (Odia, 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: en-us-lively.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lively.wav.

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