rangy
Americanadjective
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(of animals or people) slender and long-limbed.
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given to or fitted for ranging or moving about, as animals.
adjective
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(of animals or people) having long slender limbs
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adapted to wandering or roaming
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allowing considerable freedom of movement; spacious; roomy
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rangy
Explanation
People who are rangy are tall and thin, with long arms and legs. You could describe a skinny young basketball player as rangy. This adjective most often describes someone who's very tall and slim, or even a little gawky, like a teenager with big feet and long legs who hasn't finished growing and is awkward in their own body. More rarely, rangy means "tending, allowed, or allowing to roam," like a rangy stray dog or a wide, rangy field. It comes from the verb range, or "move freely over a wide area."
Vocabulary lists containing rangy
One of Us Is Lying
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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The Birchbark House
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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:
From there, the rangy, focused Noam’s steady first-person account takes center stage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2025
Hawke’s rangy crusader happens to be a magnet for that type of trouble.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2025
I saw him in the Championship last year, he was good - very long and rangy - but he only got 13 goals.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2025
Osborne is a slight but rangy runner, with deft hands, aerial ability, a kicking game and an understanding with the Leinster and Ireland team-mates who will make up a large touring contingent.
From BBC ● May 5, 2025
Another day I followed an older man, lean and rangy, who looked to be well into his seventies.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Bogaerts seems likely to play shortstop for the Padres, who can move Kim to second and Cronenworth to first to give them one of the rangier infields in baseball.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 8, 2022
A dwarf sport of the larger and rangier ‘Baggesen’s Gold’, ‘Twiggy’ brightens shady parts of the garden, where the foliage will be bright chartreuse.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 16, 2022
Cooper’s role is rangier and harder to corral: Soon-to-Be toggles so fast between nerves and nerve that she starts to seem like a firefly.
From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 2021
Yet, Diaz, more experienced, heavier, rangier and unfazed, kept rolling his hands before throwing.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 11, 2016
The two Swifts resembled each other closely—each had deep-set blue eyes and clean-cut features—although Tom was somewhat taller and rangier.
From Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung by Brey, Charles
Bol Bol is nearly half a foot shorter than his father was, but, at 7-feet-2-inches tall, he’s still one of the league’s rangiest players.
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2020
At 25, Mr. Westman, a recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, is not only the rangiest, but also the youngest of the Hamiltons I have seen.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2018
Lawrence Timmons, SteelersArguably the rangiest inside linebacker in the NFL, Timmons broke out with 135 tackles, 11 passes defenses, three forced fumbles, and three sacks.
From Newsweek ● Jan. 19, 2011
In fact, she describes the song as "vocally the rangiest piece we did; the text is so enigmatic and strange."
From Reuters ● Apr. 16, 2010
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.
