Word.ws English Dictionary

spiffy

/ˈspɪfi/

spiffy adjective: dapper; fine or neat, especially in style of clothing or other appearance.

Adjective

spiffy (comparative spiffier, superlative spiffiest)

  1. (informal) Dapper; fine or neat, especially in style of clothing or other appearance.
    • He was “great” (as he expressed it) with the Bloomer who kept the bar where their club was held, and whom he styled “a spiffy girl,” and who had been graciously pleased to accept of a pair of very Brummagem-looking earrings, set with paste diamonds, with which he had presented her.1852, “How Jeremiah Tubbs became engaged in the Irish elections of 1852”, in New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, page 66
    • The charming twins came last week, and you should see their clothes. ‘Spiffy’ is the word.1906 August 26, “Newport News in London”, in The New York Times, page 9
    Synonyms:
    snazzy, spiffing, spivvy

Noun (1)

spiffy (plural spiffies)

  1. (informal) A dapper person.

Noun (2) capitalized: Spiffy

Spiffy (plural Spiffies)

  1. A spring-wire collar stay, worn by men.
    • The only neat thing about him was his collar. It was held down by a Spiffy wire stay.1975, Irvin Faust, A Star in the Family, page 60

Synonyms of spiffy

Forms of spiffy

Adjective
comparativespiffier
superlativespiffiest
Noun
pluralspiffies
pluralSpiffies

Origin of spiffy

Unknown. Attested in print from 1852 (see quotations below). Compare the noun spiff, attested from 1859, as well as spiffing (1872) and spiffed (1881), suggesting participle forms of a related verb. Compare also spiv (“a smartly-dressed criminal”), attested from the 20th century.

Words formed from spiffy

Words that rhyme with spiffy

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spiffy

What does spiffy mean?
Spiffy means dapper; fine or neat, especially in style of clothing or other appearance.
What part of speech is spiffy?
Spiffy can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce spiffy?
Spiffy is pronounced /ˈspɪfi/.

Words near spiffy in the dictionary

  1. spifflicates
  2. spifflicating
  3. spifflication
  4. spiffs
  5. spiffs up
  6. spiffy
  7. spiflicate
  8. spiflicated
  9. spiflicates
  10. spiflicating
  11. spiflication

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spiffy (page history and authors); Spiffy (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spiffy.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-spiffy.wav.

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