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:
To attempt to tell the story of America in movies is to confront a form that, relative to our 250-year-old nation, is still in its sprightly youth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
Ms. Lewin has written a sprightly account of writers’ rooms on both sides of the Atlantic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
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
Frogs and birds sang a sprightly song above.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
In all-wheel-drive form, the RDX is a bit sprightlier around corners than the GV70.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 17, 2022
It begins with “The 1,” a stoic look back at a fizzled romance, which moves at a lope, nudged along by ringing piano chords and one of the album’s sprightlier beats.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2020
Crews has also utilised his linebacker physique in more visceral projects, including playing one of the sprightlier members of Sylvester Stallone’s OAP action ensemble The Expendables.
From The Guardian ● May 22, 2018
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
In a disapproving review last week, Conservative Columnist William F. Buckley Jr. accused Reeves of exaggeration but nonetheless placed him "among the two or three sprightliest political writers in America."
From Time Magazine Archive
It is a fair sample of the unvarnished style and the deadpan humor that mark the weekly Lancet as the sprightliest and most outspoken voice in medical journalism.
From Time Magazine Archive
Result: one of the sprightliest TV hours of the fall.
From Time Magazine Archive
Those who have read his prose writing must have noticed how gaily and airily it flows on like the sprightliest of conversation.
From My Reminiscences by Sasi Kumar Hesh
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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.
