playful
full of play or fun; sportive; frolicsome.
pleasantly humorous or jesting: a playful remark.
Origin of playful
1Other words from playful
- play·ful·ly, adverb
- play·ful·ness, noun
- half-playful, adjective
- half-play·ful·ly, adverb
- half-play·ful·ness, noun
- un·play·ful, adjective
- un·play·ful·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use playful in a sentence
They’re among the wisest animals because they’re spontaneous and playful and content with whatever life presents them.
Everything is awful. Here’s a Q&A with a philosopher about why cats rule. | Sean Illing | January 15, 2021 | VoxSeemingly more playful is a painting by another Beirut native, Helen Zughaib, who places a Roy Lichtenstein-style beauty behind a 3-D decorative screen.
In the galleries: Middle East artists examine sheltering in place amid pandemic | Mark Jenkins | January 15, 2021 | Washington PostI mean playful behavior without immediate goals and benefits, without even the possibility of failure.
Here’s a playful red blend that is indeed a mash-up — it takes Australia’s cabernet-shiraz blends and its more traditional Rhone-style GMS, or grenache, mourvedre and shiraz, and well, it’s a GMS with some cabernet.
Give your holidays some sparkle with these well-priced bubbles | Dave McIntyre | December 11, 2020 | Washington Post“We were freed from the restrictions of gravity and crowd control in a virtual space, so we could be more playful,” said Lynham.
‘The audience is the commissioner’: Decoding the Fortnite effect for marketers | Seb Joseph | December 7, 2020 | Digiday
This is kind of an accidental career for me—which is why I approach it with irreverence and playfulness.
DJ Spooky Wants You To Question Everything You Know About Music, Technology, and Philosophy | Oliver Jones | December 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn its playfulness, this trial run for revolution set the tone for what was to follow.
A hearty reminder of the power, malleability, and deep playfulness of the novel form.
Pulitzer Winner Jennifer Egan’s PEN Festival Book Bag | Jennifer Egan | April 23, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTYou embody my dream combination of human qualities: honesty, anger and playfulness.
And by then, she was ready to reclaim some of the playfulness she'd relinquished so young.
Usually in high spirits, he often displayed a boyish playfulness that resembled the gambols of a big good-natured dog.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland | Joseph TatlowThe wretched attempt at playfulness actually frightened Elle, who shrunk again to the side of her friend.
Alone | Marion HarlandThe insinuating affectionateness and winning playfulness had hitherto not been brought out so distinctly.
Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician | Frederick NiecksMeaning, perhaps, that a man's temper is such that he passes from the extreme of playfulness to that of passion very quickly.
The Proverbs of Scotland | Alexander HislopSome emotion, or exhaustion from the strain of the swimmer's breath in speech, stopped her playfulness.
Lord Ormont and his Aminta, Complete | George Meredith
British Dictionary definitions for playful
/ (ˈpleɪfʊl) /
full of high spirits and fun: a playful kitten
good-natured and humorous: a playful remark
Derived forms of playful
- playfully, adverb
- playfulness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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