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:
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
The central argument of “Democracy Matters,” situated in a single, capacious, airy gallery, is largely unassailable: that our democracy has always been aspirational—a work in progress too often undercut by U.S. laws and practices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Generous walls of glass provide abundant natural light create a light, airy atmosphere.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
Jess Jepson, 31, who lives in Manchester, says she's been dressing for the weather by wearing loose-fitting, light and airy clothes and opting for paler colours.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
She disappeared right out of her clothes, and her cloak, suddenly empty, collapsed onto the pavement with an airy whump.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
“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 music is playing, classical piano, floating from speakers in the walls.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
Texturally, the creamy soak gives the lower part of the cake a density that balances with its airier top half — as well as the light, homemade whipped cream.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 8, 2023
In addition, the covered porch and the living room are connected by a sliding door; throw it open and the space feels bigger and airier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2023
The ensemble played these pieces with brisker transparency and perhaps more varied colors; Nézet-Séguin’s textures in “Don Carlos,” airier than Levine’s, felt of a piece with the elegant nasality of French.
From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2022
A much better bread ratio, perhaps because the crumb is airier than that of a brioche bun, so it felt less like mouthing a bunch of wall insulation.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2022
The deserted Ravenclaw common room was a wide, circular room, airier than any Harry had ever seen at Hogwarts.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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
Perhaps you have sometimes wondered, when you’ve run out of worthier things to think about, what that airiest of musicals, “The Fantasticks,” might be like if it developed a social conscience.
From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2014
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.
