Word.ws English Dictionary

sprightly

Syllables: spright·ly/ˈspɹaɪtli/

sprightly adjective: animated, gay, or vivacious; lively, spirited.

Adjective

sprightly (comparative sprightlier, superlative sprightliest)

  1. Animated, gay, or vivacious; lively, spirited.
    • Next vnto lumpish Saturn, sprightlie Iove / Moves in his orbe.c. 1614–1616, “[Certaine Poems.] Planetarum Energia.”, in J. M. Cowper, editor, compiled by R. C. [Richard Corbet?], The Times’ Whistle: Or A Newe Daunce of Seven Satires, and Other Poems: […]...
    • And ſhou’d Apollo novv deſcend and vvrite, / In Vertue’s Praiſe ’tvvou’d never paſs for Wit. / The Bookſeller perhaps vvou’d ſay, / ’Tvvas vvell: / But ’Tvvou’d not hit the Times, ’Tvvou’d never Sell: / Unleſs a Spice of Levvdneſs cou’d appear, / The ſprightly part vvou’d ſtill be vvanting there. /...1702, [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, in Reformation of Manners, a Satyr, [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 59
    Antonyms:
    melancholy
  2. Of a person: full of life and vigour, especially with a light and springy step.
    • Shall our example ſloth create, / And make our Sons degenerate? / Our ſprightly youth uſeleſs in War become, / And ſleep in peace and ſlavery at home.1685, [Francis Willis [et al.]], “Ode the 15th of the First Book of Casimire Imitated, Encouraging the Polish Knights after Their Last Conquests to Proceed in Their Victory”, in Miscellany Poems and...
    • This youth was ance a sprightlie boy / As ever lived in Linne.1845, “The Heir of Linne”, in James Henry Dixon, editor, Scottish Traditional Versions of Ancient Ballads (Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages. […]; XVII, number...
    1. Especially of an older person: energetic and in good health; spry.
  3. (obsolete, rare) Of or relating to a sprite; ghostly, spectral.
    • […] As I ſlept, me thought / Great Iupiter vpon his Eagle back'd / Appear'd to me, with other ſprightly ſhewes / Of mine owne Kindred.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

Adverb

sprightly (comparative sprightlier, superlative sprightliest)

  1. In a lively and vigorous way; sprightlily.

sprightly meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

sprightly in Tamil

எழுச்சி மிக்க, அகமகிழ்வுநிலை, எழுச்சி, உயிர்த்துடிப்பு, சுறுசுறுப்பு

sprightly in Urdu

البیلا, چھبیلا, تیکھا, تیکھی

sprightly in Malayalam

lively, spry, agile
ഉല്ലാസഭരിതമായ, പ്രമുദിതമായ, ഉത്സാഹമുള്ള, സോൽത്സാഹമായ, അക്ഷീണ, ചുറചുറുക്കുള്ള

sprightly in Kannada

ಚುರುಕಾದ, ಉಲ್ಲಾಸದಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ, ಚೈತನ್ಯಪೂರ್ಣ, ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಯ, ನಗುಮೊಗದ, ನಗುನಗುವ
More languagesFewer languages
sprightly in Arabic
دَجِر dajir

Synonyms of sprightly

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of sprightly

Forms of sprightly

Adjective
comparativesprightlier
superlativesprightliest
alternative formsprightlie
alternative formspritely
Adverb
comparativesprightlier
superlativesprightliest

Origin of sprightly

From spright + -ly (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘behaving like, having the nature of’). Spright is an obsolete variant of sprite (“a shade, spirit; elf, fairy, goblin; apparition, ghost”), from Middle English sprit (“principle of life; soul, especially at the point of death; immaterial being (angel, demon, apparition, ghost, etc.); divine inspiration; Holy Spirit; the mind, intellect, reason; mental faculties, senses; power of prophecy; character, disposition; courage, resolution; mood, state of mind; human will; breath; (alchemy) volatile substance”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman esprite, esprit and Middle French esprit, variants of Anglo-Norman, Middle French, Old French espirit, esperit (“spirit”), from Latin spīritus (“air; breath; breathing; ghost, spirit”), from spīrō (“to breathe; to breathe out, exhale”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow; to breathe”)) + -tus (“suffix forming verbal nouns from verbs”).

From spright + -ly (suffix forming adverbs from adjectives).; see further at etymology 1.

Words formed from sprightly

Words that rhyme with sprightly

Questions about sprightly

What does sprightly mean?
Sprightly means animated, gay, or vivacious; lively, spirited.
What is sprightly in Tamil?
Sprightly in Tamil is எழுச்சி மிக்க, அகமகிழ்வுநிலை, எழுச்சி. See Sprightly meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sprightly?
Sprightly can be an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce sprightly?
Sprightly is pronounced /ˈspɹaɪtli/ (UK).

Words near sprightly in the dictionary

  1. sprightlier
  2. sprightliest
  3. sprightlily
  4. sprightliness
  5. sprightlinesses
  6. sprightly
  7. sprights
  8. spriglet
  9. spriglets
  10. sprigs
  11. sprigtail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sprightly (page history and authors); sprightly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sprightly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sprightly (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); sprightly (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-sprightly.wav.

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