Shelley

American  

[shel-ee] / ˈʃɛl i /

noun

1. Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) 1797–1851, English author (wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley).

2. Percy Bysshe 1792–1822, English poet.

3. a male or female given name.

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Shelley British  

/ ˈʃɛlɪ /

noun

1. Mary ( Wollstonecraft ) (ˈwʊlstənˌkrɑːft). 1797–1851, British writer; author of Frankenstein (1818); the daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, she eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelley

2. Percy Bysshe (bɪʃ). 1792–1822, British romantic poet. His works include Queen Mab (1813), Prometheus Unbound (1820), and The Triumph of Life (1824). He wrote an elegy on the death of Keats, Adonais (1821), and shorter lyrics, including the odes "To the West Wind" and "To a Skylark" (both 1820). He was drowned in the Ligurian Sea while sailing from Leghorn to La Spezia

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Example Sentences

Prominent West Virginians like Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and former Intuit CEO Brad Smith own homes in a luxury gated community on resort grounds.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026

In one unit, students conversed with ChatGPT role-playing the attendees of an 1816 dinner party where Mary Shelley hatched the idea for “Frankenstein,” and then discussed the experience in class.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026

Dash, the company name which came from Dave’s nickname in the Air Force—as Dave, just returned from Nepal, tells me—was reinterpreted as an abbreviation for Dave and Shelley.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026

Shelley Perkins, from Henleaze, Bristol, has spent more than £20,000 on cancer treatment for her five-year-old cocker spaniel Roxy in two years.

From BBC • May 4, 2026

The server behind the counter, who looked something like the actress Shelley Duvall, smiled and handed him a tray with his selected food.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady