Word.ws English Dictionary

silly

Syllables: sil·ly/ˈsɪl.i/

silly adjective: laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.

Adjective

silly (comparative sillier, superlative silliest)

  1. Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
    • They were laughing at a silly joke.
    • silly grin
    1. (particularly prices) Absurdly large.
      • He cannot achieve celebrity by covering himself with diamonds... or by giving a silly price for a hack.1875 June 26, Saturday Review, 815/2
  2. (Scotland, obsolete) Good; pious.
    • The sylyman lay and herde, / And hys wyf answerd.a. 1450, Seven Sages, line 1361
    • The King of Spaine is counted very ſtrong, and the Pope is counted very ſtrong, because they haue a ſtrong hand to perſecute the ſilly ones of leſus Chriſt.c. 1600, Robert Rollo[c]k, chapter I, in Lectvres Vpon The Epistle Of Pavl To The Colossians, London: Felix Kyngston, page 27
  3. (Scotland, obsolete) Holy.
    • ... thrie Saturdayes befor Lambas and thrie efter called the six silie Saturdayes.1650 in 1885, W. Cramond, Church of Rathven, 21
  4. (Northern England, Scotland, rare) Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly
    • The fire raging upon the silly Carcase.1556 in 1880, William Henry Turner, Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford... 1509–83, 246
    • Silly... in the same sense as E. poor is often used, denoting a state which excites compassion.1808, John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language
  5. (Northern England, Scotland, literary, rare) Innocent; suffering undeservedly, especially as an epithet of lambs and sheep.
    • There is no best in þe word, I wene... / That suffuris halfe so myche tene / As doth þe sylly wat.a. 1475, in 1925, Rossell Hope Robbins, Secular Lyrics of the 14th & 15th Centuries, 109
    • In the silly lambis skin He crap als far as he micht win.a. 1513, William Dunbar, Poems, section 247
  6. (Northern England, Scotland, literary, rare) Helpless, defenseless.
    • scared silly
    • Wherfore Christe must soo moche the more instantelye be sought vpon, that he may vouchsafe to defende vs sylly wretches.1539, Juan Luis Vives, translated by Richard Morison, Introduction to Wysedome
  7. (Northern England, Scotland, rare) Insignificant, worthless, (chiefly Scotland) especially with regard to land quality.
    • Ane sillie scheill vnder ane erdfast stanea. 1500, Aesop, translated by Robert Henryson, Two Mice
    • […]A pettigree / Of threescore and two yeares a sillie time, / To make prescription for a kingdomes worth.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  8. (Northern England, Scotland, rare) Weak, frail; flimsy (use concerning people and animals is now obsolete).
    • Here we see that a smal sillie Bird knoweth how to match with so great a Beast.1567, John Maplet, A Greene Forest
    • [Christ] leaueth neither Children nor kinsfolke behind him to vphold his sillie kingdome.1587, Philippe de Mornay, translated by Philip Sidney et al., A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, xxxii, 596
  9. (Northern England, Scotland, rare) Sickly; feeble; infirm.
    • To doe the thing we can / To please... / This silly sickly man.1636, Alexander Montgomerie, The Cherrie & the Slae, line 1512
    • Is there ony thing you would particularly fancy, as your health seems but silly?1818, Heart of Mid-Lothian, Walter Scott, section V
  10. (rare, now rustic UK) Rustic, homely.
    • Dauid had no more but a sylie slynge, and a few stones.1570, John Foxe, Actes & Monumentes, Vol. II, 926/1
  11. (obsolete, rare, now rustic UK) Lowly, of humble station.
    • The silly herdman all astonnied standes.a. 1547, the Earl of Surrey translating Publius Virgilius Maro, Certain Bokes of Virgiles Aeneis, Book II
    • So luvaris lair no leid suld lak,
      A lord to lufe a silly lass.1568, Alexander Scott, Poems, section 27
  12. (obsolete) Rustic, uneducated, unlearned.
    • From Hell (of which the silly people of the Country think the top of this hill to be the mouth).1687, Jean de Thévenot, translated by Archibald Lovell, The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant, i, 2
Show 4 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. Thoughtless, lacking judgment.
    • silly mistake
    • Wee sillie soules, take the matter too too heauily.1576, Abraham Fleming translating Sulpicius, A Panoplie of Epistles, 24
  2. (Scotland) mentally delayed or feeble.
    • Fow ȝellow ȝellow wes hir heid bot scho of lufe wes sillie.1568, Christis Kirk on Grene
    • Davie's no just like other folk... but he's no sae silly as folk tak him for.1814, Waverley, Walter Scott, III, xvi, 237
  3. Stupefied, senseless; stunned or dazed.
    • You say you were knocked silly—was that so?1829 January 17, Lancaster Gazette
    • Drinking myself silly...1907, John Millington Synge, Playboy of the Western World, iii, 64
  4. Very close to the batsman, facing the bowler; closer than short.
    • Carpenter now placed himself at silly-point for Grundy, who was playing very forward.1862 July 4, Notts. Guardian

Adverb

silly (comparative sillier, superlative silliest)

  1. (colloquial, regional) Sillily: in a silly manner.
    • If you did but see how silly a Man fumbles for an Excuse, when he's a little asham'd of being in Love.1731, Colley Cibber, Careless Husband, 7th edition, i, i, 21

Noun

silly (plural sillies)

  1. (colloquial) A silly person.
    • While they, poor sillies, bid good night,
      O' love an' bogles eerie.1807 May, Scots Magazine, 366/1
    • "Oh, Bill. I can't - Oh, my dear, I've been hoping so much.... Oh, Bill..." said Josella. I had forgotten all about Susan until a voice came from above. "You are getting wet, you silly. Why don't you kiss her indoors?" it asked.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 217
  2. (endearing, gently derogatory) A term of address.
    • ‘Come on, silly,’ said Nannie.1918 September, St. Nicholas, 972/2
  3. (colloquial) A mistake.

silly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

silly in Hindi

foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom
मूर्ख mūrkh

silly in Tamil

playful, giggly
விளையாட்டுத்தனமான viḷaiyāṭṭuttaṉamāṉa

silly in Marathi

foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom
फालतू phāltū

silly in Urdu

silly, dummy
پاگل pāgal
More languagesFewer languages
silly in Bengali
মূর্খ, নিরীহ, অর্থহীন, হাবাগবা
silly in Malayalam
ബുദ്ധിരഹിതമായ, പൊട്ടത്തരമായ, കഥയില്ലാത്ത, നിരുപദ്രവിയായ
silly in Kannada
ಮೂರ್ಖನಾದ, ತಿಳಿವಿರದ, ತಿಳಿವಳಿಕೆಯಿಲ್ಲದ, ಏನೂ ಅರಿಯದ
silly in Gujarati
મૂર્ખતાપૂર્ણ
silly in Odia
ମୂର୍ଖ murkha
silly in Sanskrit
दुर्मति durmati
silly in Arabic
سَخِيف saḵīf
silly in Indonesian
bodoh, konyol
silly in Thai
โง่ ngôo
silly in Vietnamese
ngu
silly in Myanmar
မိုက်မဲ muikmai:, န na., မိုက် muik, တုံးတာ tum:ta

Examples of silly in a sentence

  • 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:
  • Ah Shepheard, pity my diſtreſſed plight, / (If as thou ſeem’ſt, thou art ſo meane a man) / And ſeeke not to inrich thy followers, / By lawleſſe rapine from a ſilly maide, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R....
  • There remained fresh Examples of their Barbarism against weak Sea-men, and silly Fisher-men.1665, Hugo Grotius, translated by Thomas Manley, De Rebus Belgicis, section 938:
  • It is naturally very poor, ‘silly’ land.1907, Transactions of the Highland & Agricultural Society, 19, 172:

All 40 example sentences with silly

Synonyms of silly

Antonyms

Forms of silly

Adjective
comparativesillier
superlativesilliest
alternative formsely
alternative formseely
Adverb
comparativesillier
superlativesilliest
Noun
pluralsillies

Origin of silly

From Middle English seely, sēlī, from Old English sǣliġ, ġesǣliġ (“lucky, fortunate”), from Proto-West Germanic *sālīg, from *sāli; equivalent to seel (“happiness, bliss”) + -y. Doublet of Seelie. The semantic evolution is “lucky” to “innocent” to “naive” to “foolish”. Compare the similar evolution of daft (originally meaning “accommodating”), and almost the reverse with nice (originally meaning “ignorant”).

Words formed from silly

Phrases with silly

5 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with silly

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about silly

What does silly mean?
Silly means laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance.
What is silly in Hindi?
Silly in Hindi is मूर्ख (mūrkh). See Silly meaning in Hindi.
How do you use silly in a sentence?
Well sir, I have a silly walk and I'd like to obtain a Government grant to help me develop it.
What part of speech is silly?
Silly can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce silly?
Silly is pronounced /ˈsɪl.i/.

Words near silly in the dictionary

  1. Silloth
  2. Silloth-on-Solway
  3. sills
  4. sillsallat
  5. Sillustani
  6. silly
  7. silly bean
  8. silly beans
  9. silly billies
  10. silly billy
  11. Silly Cay

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: silly (page history and authors); پاگل (Urdu) (page history and authors); silly (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); silly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); silly (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); silly (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ମୂର୍ଖ (Odia) (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:

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

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