Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use silly in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, adverb, noun

Silly means laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance. Example: “They were laughing at a silly joke.”

Examples of silly by meaning

adjectiveLaughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.

  • They were laughing at a silly joke.
  • Well sir, I have a silly walk and I'd like to obtain a Government grant to help me develop it.1970, Graham Chapman et al., Monty Python's Flying Circus, I, 183

adjectiveInsignificant, worthless, (chiefly Scotland) especially with regard to land quality.

  • It is naturally very poor, ‘silly’ land.1907, Transactions of the Highland & Agricultural Society, 19, 172

adjectiveWeak, frail; flimsy (use concerning people and animals is now obsolete).

  • It's ower silly.1946, Scottish National Dictionary, published 1971, Vol. VIII, 234/3

adjectiveThoughtless, lacking judgment.

  • The silly bitch.1953, Ian Fleming, “Black Hare and Grey Hound”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 105
  • Steve, don't be silly.1972, George Lucas et al., American Graffiti, section 8
  • The truth is that everyone is sillier than you could possibly imagine they'd be.1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 3

adjectiveStupefied, senseless; stunned or dazed.

  • Well, Judy, now that you've scared me silly, what's so important?1942, J. Chodorov et al., Junior Miss, ii, i, 113
  • And shag ourselves silly.1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 2

nounA silly person.

  • "You are getting wet, you silly.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 217

nounA term of address.

  • ‘Come on, silly,’ said Nannie.1918 September, St. Nicholas, 972/2

More sentences with silly

  • We got into a silly quarrel about what food to order.From the entry quarrel
  • With the mood broken, what we had been doing seemed pretty silly.From the entry break
  • Oh, don't mind him: he's usually up in La-La Land, with all his silly ideas and whatnot.From the entry la-la land
  • You're all wound up today! Who gave you the silly pill?From the entry silly pill
  • I just recounted a few silly stories from high school, but don't get any ideas!From the entry get ideas
  • Without the type-token distinction being made, some silly thinking can slip through.From the entry type-token distinction
  • They fought for days over a silly pencil.From the entry for
  • Why are you putting that silly voice on?From the entry put on
  • The rookie was upset at being called Lemon Drop until she realized that everyone on the team had a silly moniker.From the entry moniker
  • What does that silly beggar think he's doing?From the entry beggar
  • This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.From the entry paltry
  • He didn't like fielding near silly point.From the entry silly point
  • The smart girl an' the silly boy.From the entry an'
  • Will you grow up please, and stop making silly faces?From the entry grow up
  • His silly questions are really getting on my wick.From the entry get on someone's wick
  • This silly chemistry problem makes me so confuddled!From the entry confuddled
  • I don't think there's any hope of repealing this city's silly parking bylaw. The genie is out of the bottle, sadly.From the entry the genie is out of the bottle
  • Let’s have done with this silly argument.From the entry have done with
  • Oh, silly me! I forgot to buy the apples!From the entry silly me
  • Silly me, I thought it was Saturday today!From the entry silly me
  • Buying a house in central London will set you back close to a million quid, these days – it's just silly money.From the entry silly money
  • I shifted into reverse and was just about to back up when our silly cat walked behind the car! Honk honk, kitty! Get out of there!From the entry reverse
  • There was a huge exodus over at the National Archives for snickety librarians were getting DOGEd silly.2025 February 20, “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip”, in CNN, spoken by Jesse Watters. From the entry doge
  • Don't worry, I'm not considering sillycide or silly slicing or any of that.2024 August 9, u/[deleted], r/sillyboyclub (Reddit post), archived from the original on 12 Nov 2025. From the entry silly slicing
  • My ex did silly slicing a fair bit when we had first started dating.2024 November 16, u/Wootabootie, r/sillyboyclub (Reddit post), archived from the original on 12 Nov 2025. From the entry silly slicing
  • She said girl math is a 'fun logic' and not a 'silly trend'.2023 August 10, Bridie Pearson-Jones, “Do YOU do 'girl math'? Woman explains anything under $5 is 'basically free' and sale purchases…. From the entry girl math
  • Despite drawing on classic scary scenarios, this game is more silly than scary.2023 February 7, Dynamo [pseudonym], “Insane Elevator!”, in Roblox: Create and Conquer!, New York, N.Y.: Scholastic, →ISBN, page 56. From the entry blox
  • Cody, you are such a silly bean I missed you like crazy!2021, Gabby Seiler, Witch~Vamp, Dorrance Publishing, →ISBN, page 104. From the entry silly bean
  • Even though he is silly, this recent season has made me think really highly of Connor.2021 December 13, Significant_Lynx_546, “I don't get the kids... this is absolutely win-win(-win)”, in reddit.com. From the entry Big Bird

Meaning of silly

  1. adjective Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
  2. adjective Absurdly large.
  3. adjective Good; pious.

Full definition of silly

Questions about silly in a sentence

How do you use silly in a sentence?
Silly is used as an adjective, adverb and noun. For example: “They were laughing at a silly joke.”
What is a short sentence with silly?
“It's ower silly.”
What does silly mean?
Silly means laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: silly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use silly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/silly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.