spirited
Americanadjective
adjective
-
displaying animation, vigour, or liveliness
-
(in combination) characterized by mood, temper, or disposition as specified
high-spirited
public-spirited
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spirited
Explanation
Someone who's spirited is lively or enthusiastic. It can be challenging to babysit a bunch of spirited four-year-olds, but it's also entertaining. You can also call a spirited person energetic, animated, or spunky. Spirited people are often determined, too, like a spirited activist for animal rights or a spirited defender of free school lunches. Long ago, this adjective was also used to mean "possessed by a spirit or ghost." Today's sense of spirited comes from the original meaning of the verb spirit, "to make more active."
Vocabulary lists containing spirited
This Week in Words: March 9 - 15, 2019
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The Red Pencil
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Put on a Bold Face: Synonyms for "Brave"
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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.
The back-to-back European champions sliced through City with astonishing ease to take a 3-0 lead into half-time, and were still able to score another despite a spirited second-half fightback from the Premier League leaders.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
"They're very spirited, and you get the tribalism, so it's the closest thing we have to European football fanbases," Dubiski told BBC Sport.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
The pieces are spirited across the border to Egypt, Libya, South Sudan and especially Chad, officials say.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
The Rahims had always been a spirited bunch when eating together, constantly interrupting each other in a friendly competition for airtime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
He typed in his username, Southem_Northbrook, and settled into a spirited debate about the forthcoming Deathstorm, the sixth and final book in the Bloodfall series, due out in March of the following year.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
