paddy

/ˈpædi/[ˈpʰæɾi]

paddy noun: rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

paddy (countable and uncountable, plural paddies)

Rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested.
- Taking out a handful of paddy the old woman exclaimed, “Look how good this paddy is! It is called Malbhog – it makes excellent puffed rice.”2011, Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated by Deepika Phukan, The Story of Felanee
Synonyms:

palay
(countable) A paddy field, a rice paddy; an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown.

Adjective

paddy (comparative more paddy, superlative most paddy)

(obsolete) Low; mean; boorish; vagabond.
- Even after the expiration of four months the condition of the paddy persons continued most destitute. The English soldiers became mere barefoot starving beggars in the streets[…]1860, John Lothrop Motley, The United Netherlands
- Becca wrote to Lizzie of her brother's incessant demands: Suthie came to me in a very paddy state and said 'Now ... you must bind a book for me.'1995, Maureen Borland, D.S. MacColl: Painter, Poet, Art Critic, page 41

Noun (2)

paddy (plural paddies)

A fit of temper; a tantrum.
- throw a paddy etc.
- I like the story of the Emperor Frederick who got into a paddy with his cook, and shouted: 'I am the Emperor, and I want dumplings.'2013, Mike Brown, Adventures with Czech George, page 17
Synonyms:

tantrum, catfit, conniption, conniption fit, dummy spit, headfit, hissy, hissy fit, meltdown, melty
(slang, African-American Vernacular) A white person.
- You know what I like best about paddy chicks? They give good head. Black broads don’t know nothing about giving head. I don’t know why. Might be it has something to do with some ancient tribal custom.2000, Requiem For a Dream, spoken by Big Tim (Keith David)
(England, colloquial) A labourer's assistant or workmate.
A drill used in boring wells, with cutters that expand on pressure.

Noun (3)

paddy (plural paddies)

A snowy sheathbill.

Proper noun capitalized: Paddy

Paddy (plural Paddys)

An Irish nickname for Patrick.
- ...He jumped into the water as frisky as a whale
  Swam around the U-boat wagging his little tail
  He upped with his horn and he stuck it in the boat
  And sent them all to Heligoland did Paddy McGinty's goat...1917, Bert Lee et al., Paddy McGinty's Goat

Noun (4) capitalized: Paddy

Paddy (plural Paddies)

(offensive, slang, sometimes) An Irish person.
- It is in this context of Irishphobia that the racist caricature of the drunken, violent, ignorant Paddy was established.1996, Pierre L. Van Den Berghe, Ernest Cashmore, Ellis Cashmore, Dictionary of Race and Ethnic Relations, page 182
Synonyms:

Pat

paddy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

paddy in Hindi

rice unmilled: धान dhān
wet land where rice grows: धान का क्षेत्र dhān kā kṣetra

paddy in Tamil

wet land where rice grows: நெல் வயல் nel vayal

paddy in Urdu

دھان کی کھیتی, دھان

paddy in Bengali

rice unmilled: ধান dhan
wet land where rice grows: ধানজমি dhanjômi

More languagesFewer languages

paddy in Telugu: వడ్లు vaḍlu, అరికెలు arikelu
paddy in Malayalam: നെല്ല് nellŭ, നെല്പാടം nelpāṭaṁ, പാടം pāṭaṁ
paddy in Kannada: ನೆಲ್, ಭತ್ತ, ನೆಲ್ಲು
paddy in Punjabi: ਝੋਨਾ jhonā
paddy in Gujarati: ધાન સાળ ડાંગર sāḷ
paddy in Sinhala: කුඹුර kuᵐbura
paddy in Assamese: ধান dhan, ধাননি dhanoni
paddy in Tagalog: palay, palayan
paddy in Arabic: حَقْل اَلْأَرُزّ ḥaql al-ʔaruzz
paddy in Malay: padi, sawah, sawah padi
paddy in Indonesian: padi, sawah, sawah padi
paddy in Persian: شالیزار šâlizâr, گرنجار gorenjâr, برنجار berenjâr
paddy in Thai: ข้าวเปลือก kâao-bplʉ̀ʉak, นา naa, นาข้าว
paddy in Vietnamese: ruộng lúa
paddy in Myanmar: စပါး ca.pa:, ကောက် kauk, လယ် lai

Examples of paddy in a sentence

You can still see the kerbau plowing the paddy fields in Kedah.
Paddy was a dolehead who was too lazy to ever work a day in his life.
Paddy, who was ammunition feeder, stood by while Jock trained the 20mm gun around.

All 29 example sentences with paddy

Synonyms of paddy

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of paddy

Forms of paddy

Noun
plural	paddies
plural	Paddies
Adjective
comparative	more paddy
superlative	most paddy
Proper noun
plural	Paddys

Plural of paddy: paddies

Origin of paddy

Borrowed from Malay padi (“paddy plant”). Doublet of palay.

English dialect paddy (“worm-eaten”).

Possibly from Paddy (“Irishman”).

Words formed from paddy

Phrases with paddy

Words that rhyme with paddy

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about paddy

What does paddy mean?: Paddy means rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested.
What is paddy in Hindi?: Paddy in Hindi is धान (dhān), धान का क्षेत्र (dhān kā kṣetra). See Paddy meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is paddy?: Paddy can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce paddy?: Paddy is pronounced /ˈpædi/.
What is the plural of paddy?: The plural of paddy is paddies.

Words near paddy in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: paddy (page history and authors); Paddy (page history and authors); paddy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); paddy (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-paddy.ogg, en-au-paddy.ogg.

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