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• bonny
  bonny

  adjective

  pleasing to the eye; handsome; pretty.
• Bonny
  Bonny

  noun

  a wide bay at the E end of the Gulf of Guinea off the coasts of Nigeria and Cameroon

bonny

American  

[bon-ee] / ˈbɒn i /

Or bonnie

adjective

bonnier, bonniest

1. Chiefly Scot. pleasing to the eye; handsome; pretty.

2. British Dialect.

   1. (of people) healthy, sweet, and lively.

   2. (of places) placid; tranquil.

   3. pleasing; agreeable; good.

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adverb

1. British Dialect. pleasingly; agreeably; very well.

noun

1. Scot. and North England Archaic. a pretty girl or young woman.

bonny ¹ British  

/ ˈbɒnɪ /

adjective

1. dialect beautiful or handsome

   a bonny lass

2. merry or lively

   a bonny family

3. good or fine

   a bonny house

4. (esp of babies) plump

5. dialect considerable; to be reckoned with

   cost a bonny penny

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adverb

1. informal agreeably or well

   to speak bonny

Bonny ² British  

/ ˈbɒnɪ /

noun

1. Former name (until 1975): Bight of Biafra.  a wide bay at the E end of the Gulf of Guinea off the coasts of Nigeria and Cameroon

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Other Word Forms

• bonniness
  noun
• bonnily
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of bonny

1425–75; late Middle English ( Scots ) bonie, perhaps < Old French bon good + -ie -y ¹, perhaps by analogy with jolie jolly

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bonny Bonny bonnier bonniest

And Coach Kliff Kingsbury, the bonny prince plucked from Texas Tech in 2019, was scheduled to receive his comeuppance by now.

From New York Times ● Oct. 6, 2021

Tara Erraught is a bonny Irish lass who is almost aggressively likable.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 10, 2018

Basically, Claire pulls the 18th century equivalent of a #yesallwomen campaign, and celebrates her victory by standing on a buttress and smiling vacantly at some wee bonny children.

From Time ● Aug. 16, 2014

"You're a bonny fellow to frighten children so," one of the regulars admonished him as he finished the tale.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2014

“Not at all—it bears the most gracious message in the world: for the rest, you are not my conscience-keeper, so don’t make yourself uneasy. Here, come in, bonny wanderer!”

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Vincenzo Italiano's players held their nerve better in the shoot-out, with Alessandro Bastoni, Nicolo Barella and Ange-Yoan Bonny all failing from the spot for Inter.

From Barron's ● Dec. 19, 2025

In light of the administration’s security strategy, the sale shows “its actions are aligning with its words,” said Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025

Calvert walks with her daughter, Nancy Lingemann, on Lingemann’s property in Bonny Doon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2025

Djerf Avenue's chief operating officer, Pernilla Bonny, said the company acknowledged the challenges in its workplace environment and had taken steps to address them.

From BBC ● Dec. 13, 2024

“Anne Bonny, Lady Killigrew, Grace O’Malley—to name only a few.”

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood

While some of his ban mots may have grown bonnier in telling, and others may be wholly apocryphal, who can say for sure?

From Time Magazine Archive

“Not a bit, and you never will. You’ve grown bigger and bonnier, but you are the same scapegrace as ever.”

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

“But look me fairly in the face; am I not bonnier than she?”

From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 11 (of 25) by Stevenson, Robert Louis

Cloud shadows were racing each other across the pastures as I lay back and watched them, and I thought the view had never been bonnier.

From Windyridge by Riley, W.

Allison was “coming to herself,” growing “like other folk,” only bonnier and better than most.

From Allison Bain, or, By a Way she knew not by Edwards, G. H. (George Henry)

The prams of Britain are filled with the bonniest babies in living memory.

From Time Magazine Archive

So he suggested a cat instead, “the bonniest little cat ye ever did see.”

From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn

Out bespak the Earl of Hume, And O but he spak wondrous sorry,—30 "The bonniest lass about a' Glasgow toun, This day is awa wi' a hieland laddie."

From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume IV by Various

There is no stone to mark where he lies, but I know the spot, and I always think the gowan blinks bonniest and the grass grows greenest there.

From Aileen Aroon, A Memoir With other Tales of Faithful Friends and Favourites by Stables, Gordon

When Lord Fyvie this letter read, O dear, but he was sorry; 'The bonniest lass in Fyvie's land Is bewitched by Andrew Lammie.'

From The Romantic Scottish Ballads: Their Epoch and Authorship by Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)