lithe
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lithe
before 900; Middle English lith(e), Old English līthe; cognate with Old Saxon līthi, German lind “mild,” Latin lentus “slow”
Explanation
Have you ever seen people who can bend so easily, they can touch their heels to the back of their heads? Those people are, in a word, lithe. Lithe comes to us from Old English and originally meant "mild, meek." As a meek person bends to the will of others, the meaning of lithe has broadened to flexible and even graceful. Think of a dancer or the ease of a sleek cat when you think of lithe. You can use it to describe a person or the way someone moves.
Vocabulary lists containing lithe
Cat Vocabulary: A Feline Lexicon
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The Lightning Thief
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Ender's Game
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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:
A bit of tinkering – stripping the original’s heavy bassline, tossing in his lithe falsetto and a playful guitar to hold everything aloft – made the one-time throwaway into something immortal.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2026
The lithe physique of the rubber man of tennis enabled him to chase down seemingly lost causes and he combined a brutally efficient game with a rock-solid defence.
From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026
The cast includes William Warfield, Leontyne Price and Cab Calloway, who at one point is shown scat-singing in a Vienna tavern, a born entertainer caught in a wonderfully loose, lithe and swinging performance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
Let me reiterate: In a city obsessed with youth and brimming with lithe fitness instructors in Lululemon-wear and wireless headsets, a 24 Hour Fitness gym has a secret weapon in Delgado.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025
Incredibly handsome, too, tall and lithe and muscular, with beautiful, smooth skin, big teeth, and a great smile, always laughing.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
Pappano, the longtime music director of the Royal Opera House in London, offers a lighter, lither reading, not rushed but evenly flowing, airy even when agitated.
From New York Times ● Oct. 27, 2021
Crispy-edged and light, like lither thin-crust pizzas, tortizzas can be topped with whatever you like and nothing you don’t.
From New York Times ● Sep. 10, 2021
So in the long term on Mars I think we will eventually see a lighter, lither build than on Earth.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 19, 2012
Coutured and made up to seem a younger, taller, lither Davis, Neal reads her early lines with a castrating wit, accompanied by the flinging of an eyebrow for emphasis.
From Time ● Aug. 11, 2010
A Hare, a Hare, halloe, halloe, the Divell take these curres, will they not stir, halloe, halloe, there, there, there, what are they growne so lither and so lazie?
From Discovery of Witches The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster by Potts, Thomas, fl. 1612-1618
This Gunnar was the best skilled in weapons, and the lithest of limb of all bonderfolk who have been in Iceland; the second was Gunnar of Lithend; but Steinthor of Ere was the third.
From The Story Of Gunnlaug The Worm-Tongue And Raven The Skald 1875 by Morris, William
Beyond everything he enjoyed the sight of the lithest and most elegant of the girls, whom he knew to be Eliza Brating and who was dancing with a partner whose skill obviously needed no lessons.
From Mr. Prohack by Bennett, Arnold
The porteuses, said to be the lithest, hardiest women of the occident, wore a pitiable look of fatigue, as they came down from the hill-trails, steadying the baskets upon their heads.
From She Buildeth Her House by Comfort, William Wistar
I could brew a jug of Punch, and at a jig could dance down the lithest gambriler of those parts, Dan Meagher, the Blind Piper of Swords.
From The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... by Sala, George Augustus
Were the snake himself coiled round that consecrated bauble, the prayers of the devout Father Checkley would unclasp his lithest folds.
From Rookwood by Ainsworth, William Harrison
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.
