Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

silly

/ˈsɪl.i/ adjective, adverb, noun

Forms sillier silliest sillies sely seely

  1. adjective Laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance. “They were laughing at a silly joke.”
  2. adjective (of numbers, particularly prices) Absurdly large.
  3. adjective Good; pious.
  4. adjective Holy.
  5. adjective (now chiefly Scotland and Northern England, rare) Pitiful, inspiring compassion, particularly:
  6. adjective (now literary) Innocent; suffering undeservedly, especially as an epithet of lambs and sheep.
  7. adjective (now literary) Helpless, defenseless. “scared silly”
  8. adjective Insignificant, worthless, (chiefly Scotland) especially with regard to land quality.
  9. adverb (now regional or colloquial) Sillily: in a silly manner.
  10. noun (colloquial) A silly person.
  11. noun (endearing, gently derogatory) A term of address.
  12. noun (colloquial) A mistake.

Synonyms

charming Also see Thesaurus:foolish cockamamie cockamamy goofy sappy wacky whacky zany airheaded dizzy empty-headed featherbrained giddy light-headed lightheaded pathetic ridiculous punch-drunk slaphappy

Antonyms

pious

Etymology

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”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Happy; fortunate; blessed. [Obs.] Chaucer.
  2. adjective Harmless; innocent; inoffensive. [Obs.] "This silly, innocent Custance." Chaucer.

Etymology [OE. seely, sely, AS. s, ges, happy, good, fr. s, s, good, happy, s good fortune, happines; akin to OS. salig, a, good, happy, D. zalig blessed, G. selig, OHG. salig, Icel. s, Sw. säll, Dan. salig, Goth. s good, kind, and perh. also to L. sollus whole, entire, Gr. sarva. Cf. Seel, n.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “silly”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “silly” (best matches first).

All 28 Sanskrit matches →