Word.ws English Dictionary

pollyanna

/ˌpɒliˈænə/

pollyanna is the alternative form of Pollyanna.

Proper noun capitalized: Pollyanna

Pollyanna

  1. A female given name from Hebrew derived from Polly and Anna; rare in the real world.
    • Pollyanna Pocket was small, with long floppy ears and a tail that coiled upwards in a little ringlet. She was a bouncy, happy young dog, who frolicked all day2014, Dot and the Waves, page 10

Noun (1) capitalized: Pollyanna

Pollyanna (plural Pollyannas)

  1. One who is persistently cheerful and optimistic, even when given cause not to be so.
    • You call her an optimist, but I call her an obnoxious Pollyanna.
    • I never wanna hear / From any cheerful Pollyannas / Who tell you Fate supplies a mate / It's all bananas1930, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, “But Not for Me”, performed by Ginger Rogers

Noun (2) capitalized: Pollyanna

Pollyanna (plural Pollyannas)

  1. (Mid-Atlantic, Pennsylvania, Southeastern, US, colloquial) A secret Santa gift exchange.

Forms of pollyanna

Noun
pluralpollyannas
pluralPollyannas
alternative formpollyanna
Proper noun
alternative formPolly-Anna
alternative formPolly Anna

Origin of pollyanna

From Polly + Anna.

From the name of the protagonist in the 1913 novel Pollyanna, by Eleanor Porter.

Words formed from pollyanna

Words that rhyme with pollyanna

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pollyanna

What does pollyanna mean?
Pollyanna means a female given name from Hebrew derived from Polly and Anna; rare in the real world.
What is pollyanna the alternative form of?
Pollyanna is the alternative form of Pollyanna.
What part of speech is pollyanna?
Pollyanna can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce pollyanna?
Pollyanna is pronounced /ˌpɒliˈænə/.

Words near pollyanna in the dictionary

  1. polly-fox
  2. polly-foxed
  3. polly-foxes
  4. polly-foxing
  5. Pollyanish
  6. pollyanna
  7. Pollyanna creep
  8. pollyanna-ish
  9. pollyannaish
  10. Pollyannaishly
  11. Pollyannaism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pollyanna (page history and authors); Pollyanna (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Pollyanna.wav.

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