sprightly
Americanadjective
adverb
adjective
adverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sprightly
Explanation
To be sprightly is to be full of youthful, vibrant energy. You don’t have to be young to be sprightly, though, energetic old people can be sprightly, too. Weeeeeee! The word sprightly comes from the word sprite, which is a small, elf-like fairy creature. If someone acts like a happy little fairy, has a lot of enthusiasm, and acts in a youthful way, she’s sprightly. To be sprightly is to be full of spirit and vitality, to be happy, and to have a positive attitude. Someone who radiates energy and positivity is sprightly.
Vocabulary lists containing sprightly
Things Fall Apart
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Smiley Face: Synonyms for "Happy"
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Stargirl
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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:
Its cast is exactly the sprightly ensemble needed to land its what-if laughs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
The legs have not looked as sprightly as they once did.
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2025
Teenage star Yamal underwhelmed in last week's defeat by Real Madrid after coming back from a groin issue, but looked more sprightly against Elche.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2025
His sprightly text, ably translated from the French by Arielle Aaronson, may crack a smile on even the most stone-faced among us.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
The word meaning “energetic” has a glr, it’s not “spritely”: Ed and Trixie were feeling sprightly.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
But the shifts to come could be more radical than just employees moving from big tech companies to smaller, sprightlier ones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 24, 2023
In all-wheel-drive form, the RDX is a bit sprightlier around corners than the GV70.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2022
For their second outing, the much sprightlier “The Devil May Dance,” he’s jumped ahead to the early 1960s and more glamorous locations.
From New York Times ● May 8, 2021
At fifty-two, she is sprightlier than her more serious work suggests, a quality that helps earn the trust of her subjects, whether in Africa or in coal country.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 20, 2017
Miss Whitlaw seemed to lose ten years and become sprightlier.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
And the rhythmic and harmonic quirkiness of the two Contredanses made the sprightliest movements in the Bach, Handel and Muffat works sound staid.
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2011
Mary is Debbie Reynolds, giving one of her sprightliest performances as the wickedly witty, nearly divorced wife of Publisher Barry Nelson, who repeats his stage role in sharp, swinging style.
From Time Magazine Archive
Result: one of the sprightliest TV hours of the fall.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the days of Alva Johnston and of Stanley Walker, the Trib's city coverage was the sprightliest in town.
From Time Magazine Archive
Monica, if her promise were fulfilled, would be by far the best looking, as well as the sprightliest, of the family.
From The Odd Women by Gissing, George
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.
