glossy
Americanadjective
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smooth and shiny; lustrous
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superficially attractive; plausible
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(of a magazine) lavishly produced on shiny paper and usually with many colour photographs
noun
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Also called (US): slick. an expensively produced magazine, typically a sophisticated fashion or glamour magazine, printed on shiny paper and containing high quality colour photography Compare pulp
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a photograph printed on paper that has a smooth shiny surface
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of glossy
Explanation
Something that is glossy is something that shines or is attractive. Things that are glossy reflect light, like certain types of lipstick. Glossy paper is smooth and has a shine to it, like the paper of most calendars. The word glossy sounds a little bit like the word glassy, which is a good way to remember it. Things that are glossy sort of look like glass, meaning they have a shine to them. After your teeth are cleaned, they'll hopefully look glossy. When you print photographs, you can choose a glossy finish — that’s when the image looks shiny and smooth. In that instance, the opposite of glossy is matte, a sort of rougher finish that doesn’t reflect light.
Vocabulary lists containing glossy
List 3
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Goodbye Stranger
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Let There Be Light: Synonyms for "Bright"
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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 heat makes berries slump and burst, pooling the pan with juices that turn thick, glossy and intensely flavored as they cook, a concentration that maceration alone simply can’t achieve.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
But it’s still built like a tasteful record store with hi-res audio and downloads, no ad tier, and a glossy music magazine championing outsider acts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
Newspapers were launching glossy weekend magazines, turning pop stars and artists into an new breed of classless celebrity.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
Read more about how the best friends have parlayed their podcast “Las Culturistas” into a glossy brand with a glamorous awards show and a book on the way.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
She looked as if she had stepped out of a glossy magazine.
From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser
They fit as naturally in cheap pulp magazines as in upmarket literary glossies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
That provided her the first step to move back East; she found a job at the Boston Phoenix and then the Boston Globe Magazine, and started writing for the glossies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2025
Long-faded glossies with names like Holiday, Venture and Horizon sent her to faraway lands and paid her handsomely, though she talked about money as “a constant worry.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 18, 2022
The well-made rock ‘n’ roll glossies on the market, like Mojo or Uncut, are British-based.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2022
All the glossies I’d pored over in my bedroom at home, admiring the gymnasts who’d reached the top of the sport.
From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles
What had been brothy turned to something thicker, glossier — golden, almost velvety.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2026
The budget for microdramas is usually between $100,000 and $250,000 for an entire season, compared with millions of dollars for glossier full-length shows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
The main characters in Kevin Williamson’s Netflix series are a multigenerational cast of adults whose lives are glossier and grittier than what audiences remember from the ‘Dawson’s’ gang.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2025
The “Hazbin” pilot was weird and quirky, with outlandish humor and mature themes, and so is the series, even as it feels bigger, glossier and more expensive.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
Even so, his eyes look glossier, and the blue irises take on a lovely, reflective sheen.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
And today, F1 isn’t merely one of Apple’s glossiest global partners with a blockbuster movie to show for it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
For those still determined to aim for the furthest, glossiest reaches of the Benjamin Moore color wheel, there are some caveats.
From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2023
The U.K. pop rockers return to Sodo at their glossiest, riding high on this year’s ballyhooed “Being Funny in a Foreign Language.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2022
From the Champs Élysées to Avenue Montaigne and along the Rue St.-Honoré, the glossiest and most glamorous shopping streets of central Paris are usually bustling on Saturdays in December.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2018
The mob of spearmen there numbered hundreds, the common folk thousands, arrayed in their glossiest and showiest lambas of silk or cotton.
From The Woodlands Orchids by Boyle, Frederick
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.
