sporty
Americanadjective
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flashy; showy.
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smart in dress, behavior, etc.
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like or befitting a sportsman.
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dissipated; fast.
a sporty crowd.
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designed for or suitable for sport.
adjective
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(of a person) fond of sport or outdoor activities
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(of clothes) having the appearance of sportswear
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(of a car) having the performance or appearance of a sports car
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of sporty
Explanation
Look down. Are you wearing sneakers? Ready to kick a ball, shoot some hoops, or go watch a game? If so, you’re sporty! Sporty things are related to athletics. You are sporty if you love sports, dress like you love sports, or behave like a good sport by saying “good game” even when you lose. Sporty can also describe something fast and flashy, like a sporty red convertible. The oldest recorded meaning of sporty is "sportsmanlike," from the late nineteenth century.
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:
I asked Jack and Finn, my sporty 15- and 17-year-old sons, what they thought of the biblical figure towering over them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
I’m very outdoorsy, I’m very sporty, so there’s a lot of things that I relate to from a design standpoint.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026
To advertise her business, she affixed a decal and phone number to her white 1984 Pontiac Fiero, a sporty two-seater with retractable headlights.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
Meg, a popular and sporty teenager, was enjoying the social side of student life.
From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026
She saw no one on the path until near the entrance, where she passed four sporty guys wearing Santa hats and holding flashlights, starting up the trail marked in yellow.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
What I can say is that this EV sails along smoothly and quietly while somehow feeling sportier than my Mustang Mach-E or the Tesla Model Y I tested a few years back.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
However the lucky winner preferred sportier models and later exchanged it for a Ferrari whose owner was a true fan of Hallyday's, he added.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2025
The Mach-E is also sportier around turns and generally more fun to drive.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 13, 2023
Picture going for a whirl in a swiveling office chair—or, if you’d prefer a sportier option, popping on a pair of ice skates and taking a spin.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 19, 2022
The bra was sportier than any I'd ever had, but it was cute anyway.
From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour
"Our truck is the sportiest truck you are going to see," he said.
From Reuters ● Aug. 4, 2023
Grid View The Max-Out is the sportiest concept, with a low-slung stance and an emphasis on speed and performance.
From The Verge ● Nov. 29, 2021
Somehow, all of that and less had become the middle weekend of March in America’s sportiest downtown, amid a state so in love with basketball that it ought to be round.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 15, 2020
Seb is one of the sportiest kids I know, his teacher says he is one of the most popular children in his class, if not his school.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 31, 2016
“This is definitely a first for me. The sportiest thing I’ve ever done is run after the bus,” Juanga says as he ties his shoelace.
From "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez
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.
