airy
adjective
open to a free current of fresh air; breezy.
airy
American
[air-ee]
/ ˈɛər i /
adjective
-
airier,
comparative
-
airiest
superlative
-
open to a free current of fresh air; breezy.
airy rooms.
-
consisting of or having the character of air; immaterial.
airy phantoms.
-
light in appearance; thin.
airy garments.
-
light in manner; sprightly; lively.
airy songs.
-
light in movement; graceful; delicate.
an airy step.
-
light as air; unsubstantial; unreal; imaginary.
airy dreams.
-
visionary; speculative.
-
performed in the air; aerial.
-
lofty; high in the air.
-
putting on airs; affected; snobbish.
an airy debutante posing for society photographers.
airy
1
British
/ ˈɛərɪ /
adjective
-
abounding in fresh air
-
spacious or uncluttered
-
nonchalant; superficial
-
visionary; fanciful
airy promises
airy plans
-
of or relating to air
-
weightless and insubstantial
an airy gossamer
-
light and graceful in movement
-
having no material substance
airy spirits
-
high up in the air; lofty
-
performed in the air; aerial
Airy
2
British
/ ˈɛərɪ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Adjective Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of airy
Explanation
An airy place is full of fresh air. Other airy things are either light like air or without substance like air. Air surrounds us, and it has a lot of meanings. If a place is described as airy, that means it's full of fresh air. An open stadium is airy, while a stuffy apartment is not. If a house has lots of open windows, it's airy. Also, an argument that has no substance can be called airy, because there's nothing to it. Light things are airy too: a flimsy, light dress or a low-fat dessert could both be called airy.
Vocabulary lists containing airy
With the Fire on High
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"The Tempest," Vocabulary from a soliloquy
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Those Kids from Fawn Creek
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
One arrives every two minutes or so at each airy, pleasantly lit station.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
The yoga class is open to all levels, including beginners, but participants must reserve a spot and bring their own mats for both sessions, which will be held inside the museum’s spacious, airy lobby.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
"I've never been to this cathedral. It's airy, it's light, it's lovely," she said.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Katzenback said the airy feeling I had leaving my treatment was likely linked to temporary changes in fluid distribution, which can “make people feel less swollen or heavy, especially after travel.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
The way they transformed into such airy, weightless beings while dancing, when offstage they were all earthbound muscle and sweaty concentration!
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
“I still consider the game something played by women of older generations,” said Lauren Perlin, co-executive director of Camps Airy and Louise in western Maryland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Airy and light, the decor is both California and traditional in style, with French doors in the living room, multiple fireplaces, and warm wood flooring throughout.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
Robinson had been attending a campaign event in Mount Airy, a city located near the border of North Carolina and Virginia, at the time of the latest incident.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2024
In 2022, she and members of her lab designed and 3D-printed a flexible and versatile tool known as an Airy beam-enabled binary acoustic metasurface that allowed them to manipulate ultrasound beams.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 17, 2024
Airy was a fierce little boy with a sword, and I’m just a grey mouse girl with a pail.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
It ushered in a new kind of fun that was fresher, busier and airier than past listservs and chatrooms, the dank basements of internet interaction.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
They say it can turbocharge urban housing construction at a modest and more affordable scale while also promoting apartments that are bigger, airier and better lighted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 2025
“Hold the Girl” continues to showcase the appetite for genre-blending that garnered critical acclaim for her 2020 debut, “Sawayama,” but with airier, gossamer textures instead of her previous molten grip.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 30, 2022
“They can work well in any space, but in a small living space they have the benefit of taking up less space than cabinetry and provide a lighter, airier feel,” she says.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2022
He’d added the skylights, painted everything white to make it brighter and airier.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
By contrast, Leithauser’s witty “Rhyme’s Rooms: The Architecture of Poetry” blueprints the struts and girders, the iron armature, needed to create even the airiest lyric.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2022
The airiest batch with the best flavor hailed from the food mill, which came with its own pros and cons.
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2021
She sailed through her dastardly wolf turn, obliterated all but one of her tricky connecting skills, and then positively flew off the apparatus with the highest, airiest double pike I have ever seen.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2021
Book 4 is also the airiest book in the series.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2015
It was a pleasant, mellow-toned bell, but even the airiest, tinkling chime can be rung insistently and in a panic, and that was unmistakably the type of ringing this was.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
