silliness

[ sil-ee-nis ]

noun

1. the quality of lacking good sense; foolishness:

   The author pokes fun at herself and the general silliness of celebrity culture.

   Her blog cuts through the contradictions, misinformation, and downright silliness out there about naturopathy.

2. absurdity, ridiculousness, or irrationality:

   This “no-touch” policy occasionally devolves into silliness, as when a teacher hesitates to help a five-year-old zip up a jacket.

3. clownish, whimsical, or exaggerated humor and playfulness; unrestrained high spirits:

   Our sessions included a lot of chatter, laughter, and silliness—exactly what sitting around a table playing games with friends is all about.

Word History and Origins

Origin of silliness¹

silly ( def ) + -ness ( def )

Example Sentences

I was the class clown my whole life, and I loved to laugh and be silly.

From Ozy

Physicists had always figured that a quantum theory of gravity came into play only in situations so extreme that they sound silly, such as a star collapsing to the radius of a proton.

From Quanta Magazine

Take a break from thinking about the election by learning about the weirdest, silliest, and most shocking stories we could find from political history.

From Popular-Science

Treating others’ knowledge as your own isn’t as silly as it sounds.

From MIT Technology Review

Often surprisingly silly, and more often visceral and grim, Ruthie Fear is, at its core, about changes that may feel familiar to many mountain towns, like environmental decline and growing inequality.

From Outside Online

Besides the blatant silliness of it all, it does raise some questions—and not about sex.

From The Daily Beast

Suddenly, collective greatness was sacrificed for individual silliness, with each week marking a Very Special Episode.

From The Daily Beast

Amy Zimmerman on the ridiculous plot, over-the-top tone, and unabashed silliness viewers seem to love.

From The Daily Beast

Yesterday, I wrote about the silliness of requiring a file clerk to have a college degree.

From The Daily Beast

People are hurting, people died, and the time for silliness, debate, and procedural motions is over.

From The Daily Beast

He stared at the vision wonderingly and long, and then he began to laugh with the scorn of soberness and the silliness of drink.

From Project Gutenberg

This Dorothy is a thoroughly ingenuous young person, naïvely outspoken to the point of silliness.

From Project Gutenberg

That which I defend is the superiority of nature to us: that which I fight against is the conceited silliness of certain persons.

From Project Gutenberg

The subject matter is older than Ovid, and how many poems has it led to every silliness, every vulgarity!

From Project Gutenberg

In each of its little scallops a family of empty chairs sat facing the stage in solemn silliness.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• absurdity
• craziness
• foolishness
• goofiness
• stupidity