zany
Syllables: za·ny/ˈzeɪni/
zany adjective: unusual and awkward in a funny, comical manner; outlandish; clownish.
Adjective
zany (comparative zanier, superlative zaniest)
- Unusual and awkward in a funny, comical manner; outlandish; clownish.
- And I will admit now but never then that, more than once, listening to the Viennese chattering their zany German on the pavements, or taking himself to one of the struggling small theatres that were cropping up in cellars and bombed houses...1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
- Press articles emphasized his [Dizzy Gillespie's] ambassadorial role and drew attention to the paradox that he was a shrewd musician and leader despite his zany image.1999, Alyn Shipton, “Gillespiana”, in Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 293
- Ludicrously or incongruously comical.
Noun
zany (plural zanies)
- A fool or clown, especially one whose business on the stage is to imitate foolishly the actions of the principal clown.
- Then write that I may follow, and so be / Thy echo, thy debtor, thy foil, thy zany.a. 1631, John Donne, Epistle to Mr. I. W.
- O great restorer of the good old stage, / Preacher at once, and Zany of thy age!1728, Alexander Pope, “Book III”, in The Dunciad
Verb
zany (third-person singular simple present zanies, present participle zanying, simple past and past participle zanied)
- To mimic foolishly.
zany meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
zany in Hindi
- मसखरा, भाण्ड, ठिठोलिया, मूर्ख, बेवकूफ़, सनकी
zany in Tamil
- கேலிக்கூத்தர், கோமாளியின் துணைவர், விகடர், அறிவிலாக் குறும்பர், மந்த மதியினர்
zany in Urdu
- احمق, بےوقوف, بھانڈ, مسخرہ, سادہ لوح
zany in Bengali
- নির্বোধ, বোকা, পাগল, অপেক্ষাকৃত নির্বোধ ব্যক্তি, বুদ্ধু, সং
More languagesFewer languages
- zany in Malayalam
- വികടത്തമുള്ള, കോമാളിത്തമുള്ള, വെെഹാസികത്വം നിറഞ്ഞ, ചിരിപ്പിക്കുംവിധം വികൃതിയായ
- zany in Kannada
- ವಿಚಿತ್ರವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ, ಪೆದ್ದ, ಹಾಸ್ಯಾಸ್ಪದ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ, ವಿಚಿತ್ರನಾದ
- zany in Arabic
- أَحْمَق ʔaḥmaq, حَمْقَاء ḥamqāʔ
- zany in Persian
- شفت šeft
- zany in Thai
- บ๊อง bɔ́ɔng, ติงต๊อง dting-dtɔ́ng
Examples of zany in a sentence
- When playing for Connie Mack, Rube [Waddell]'s pattern after one of his zany outbursts usually involved promises of good behavior and a spurt of excellent pitching.2000, Alan H. Levy, Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist, Jefferson, N.C.: London: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page...
- This runs counter to the play, where Grandpa is always benignly indulgent of all his zany progeny and their equally zany spouses, and is even somewhat zany himself.2013, William Paul, “No Escaping the Depression: Utopian Comedy and the Aesthetics of Escapism in Frank Capra's You Can't Take it with You...
- So there he caught me lying like a zany on the ground.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
Synonyms of zany
Forms of zany
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | zanier |
| superlative | zaniest |
| Noun | |
| plural | zanies |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | zanies |
| present participle | zanying |
| past participle | zanied |
| past | zanied |
Origin of zany
From Middle French zani, zanni, from Italian zanni (“a kind of masked clown character”), from Zanni, a Venetian form of Giovanni. Doublet of Zanni, John, and Giovanni.
Words formed from zany
Words that rhyme with zany
Questions about zany
- What does zany mean?
- Zany means unusual and awkward in a funny, comical manner; outlandish; clownish.
- What is zany in Hindi?
- Zany in Hindi is मसखरा, भाण्ड, ठिठोलिया. See Zany meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use zany in a sentence?
- When playing for Connie Mack, Rube [Waddell]'s pattern after one of his zany outbursts usually involved promises of good behavior and a spurt of excellent pitching.
- What part of speech is zany?
- Zany can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce zany?
- Zany is pronounced /ˈzeɪni/.
Words near zany in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: zany (page history and authors); zany (Hindi Wiktionary) (page history and authors); zany (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); zany (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); zany (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); zany (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); zany (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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Cite this entry: “zany.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zany. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.