sillily

S1I1L1L1I1L1Y4
/ˈsɪlɪli/

adverb

In a silly manner; foolishly.

“The man walked down the street so sillily that many a bystander stopped and stared slack-jawed.”

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Scrabble 10

Meanings

adverbsillily (comparative more sillily, superlative most sillily)

comparative more sillily · superlative most sillily · alternative obsolete sillyly

  1. datedhypercorrectIn a silly manner; foolishly.

    The man walked down the street so sillily that many a bystander stopped and stared slack-jawed.

    2 more examples

    It was a fish-trap—just a ring of reeds set up in the water with only one little opening in it, and in this opening, just below the water, were stuck reeds slanting the way of the river's flow, so that the fish, when they had swum sillily in, sillily couldn't get out again.

    1906, E. Nesbit, The Story of the Amulet

    Even 'Che Isa [...] had behaved sillily, making up to married men.

    1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 253

    Synonyms: silly

Synonyms & antonyms

adverbIn a silly manner; foolishly.

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Origin

  1. Englishsilly
  2. Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
  3. Proto-Germanic*līką
  4. Englishsillily

From silly + -ly.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

sillily. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sillily

MLA

“sillily.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sillily. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sillily,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sillily.

Source: sillily on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.