Definition of SPRIGHTLY

sprightly

Meanings

Adjective Satellite

  • full of spirit and vitality
    • "a sprightly young girl"
    • "a sprightly dance"

Adj

  • Animated, gay, or vivacious; lively, spirited.
  • Of a person: full of life and vigour, especially with a light and springy step.
  • Of a person: full of life and vigour, especially with a light and springy step.
  • Especially of an older person: energetic and in good health; spry.
  • Of or relating to a sprite; ghostly, spectral.

Adv

  • In a lively and vigorous way; sprightlily.

Origin / Etymology

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”).

Synonyms

active, dynamic, energetic, high-spirited, mettlesome, spright, vivacious

Antonyms

melancholy

Scrabble Score: 18

sprightly is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
sprightly is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
sprightly is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 19

sprightly is a valid Words With Friends word