filmy

American  

[fil-mee] / ˈfɪl mi /

adjective

filmier, filmiest

1. thin and light; fine and gauzy.

   a gown of a filmy material.

2. hazy or misty; glazed.

   filmy eyes.

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filmy British  

/ ˈfɪlmɪ /

adjective

1. composed of or resembling film; transparent or gauzy

2. covered with or as if with a film; hazy; blurred

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Other Word Forms

• filminess
  noun
• filmily
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of filmy

First recorded in 1595–1605; film + -y ¹

Explanation

Something that's filmy is light and translucent. Filmy white curtains are especially pretty when the sun shines through them and they blow in the breeze. The adjective filmy often describes fabric that you can almost see through, like a filmy dress you wear to the prom. A filmy layer of light might rest on the surface of water, and your old dog might have filmy eyes. In all of these examples, the filmy thing is nearly as thin as a film or membrane: the word stems from the Old English filmen, "membrane or thin skin."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

filmy filmier filmiest

Curiously, the style game of Punjabi musicians - from hip-hop, R&B, bhangra pop, fusion, Punjabi rap, reggae or filmy music - has also remained rooted and androgynous, instead of being hyper masculine.

From BBC ● May 31, 2025

It reveals mostly close-ups of the singers, often as filmy cameos like you might see in old silents.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2024

As the third graders of Cumberland Elementary in the Chicago suburbs colored, clipped and glued paper to make cicadas with filmy wings, they confided their fears about what is about to happen in Illinois.

From New York Times ● May 4, 2024

For decades, researchers have assumed that the inevitable filmy buildup on electrodes inside rechargeable batteries is the driver of performance loss.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2023

The stones on the bottom were all shapes and sizes—flat, egg-shaped, domed—very hard on the feet, and covered with a filmy green slime that was ludicrously slippery.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

The lower sleeves are golden, a line of white at the wrist, and a filmier one within the bodice.

From Holbein by Fortescue, Beatrice

Our normal waking consciousness is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.

From Time Magazine Archive

Weave, weave, weave,      The tiniest thread will do;      The filmiest thread from a spider's bed      Is stout enough for you.

From Christian's Mistake by Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock

Above these they could see a range of sharp-peaked mountains that still caught the sunlight, some crystal white with snow, others muffled by clouds turned to iris-hued scarfs of filmiest gauze.

From Ewing\'s Lady by Wilson, Harry Leon

From the depths of her theatre trunks she produced a bewildering assortment of laces, chiffon, silks, and the filmiest of gauzes.

From West Wind Drift by McCutcheon, George Barr

But this is the way of Love; its filmiest threads easily spin themselves further; and a man once entangled is bound by that unseen chain which links the soul to its destiny.

From The Maid of Maiden Lane by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston