spry
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spry
First recorded in 1740–50; origin uncertain
Explanation
If you are an old lady, remaining spry is something you aspire to. It means "nimble." You might also use it to describe a goat that jumps easily along from mountain crag to mountain crag. The most common use of spry is to describe people who are aging. You might say that at 92, your great grandmother is still spry and sharp as a tack. Spry refers to her physical well-being; "sharp as a tack" to her mental faculties.
Vocabulary lists containing spry
Words from "The Avengers"
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Wonder
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Restart
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Manilow appeared to be spry and energetic throughout the show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
As even some of Moulton’s supporters acknowledged, the 80-year-old senator still looks spry and sounds with it.
From Slate ● Sep. 2, 2026
"My ancestors have always remained spry, both mentally and physically, and all remained very active right into their old age," she says.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2025
“I named him the Visa God,” said Gopalakrishna, a spry 81-year-old who still works at the temple.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2025
She was a demanding, witty, spry woman who was the first white person I ever had an ongoing dialogue with about music and literature, which she enjoyed greatly.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
Two tracks later comes “Hard Piano,” a collaboration with Rick Ross, who’s fresh off a health crisis but has rarely sounded sprier than he does here.
From Slate ● May 29, 2018
Though it has bad word of mouth, “Jonah Hex” is generally better, sprier and more diverting than most of the action flicks now playing, “The A-Team” included.
From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2010
They are younger, sprier, more active than members of the British House of Lords.
From Time Magazine Archive
So we do believe you, Mr. Joseph … sprier than many an old 'un, I'm sure.
From The Harlequinade An Excursion by Dion Clayton Calthrop
It was easy, in the daytime, for the squirrels to keep out of Fatty's way, when he wandered through the tree-tops, for the squirrels were much sprier than Fatty.
From Sleepy-Time Tales: the Tale of Fatty Coon by Arthur Scott Bailey
As an added turret he has Ann Pennington, erstwhile spriest dancer of many a Ziegfeld Follies.
From Time Magazine Archive
He remains the Kremlin's jauntiest dresser and spriest waltzer.
From Time Magazine Archive
"They say that you're a great jumper—the spriest jumper in all Pleasant Valley."
From The Tale of Kiddie Katydid by Harry L. Smith
Your father was the spriest koind of a b'y, I'm told.
From The Widow O'Callaghan's Boys by Gulielma Zollinger
Most importantly, a noticeably leaner and spryer Trout says he feels better than he has in years—and it shows.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 17, 2026
A week or two dedicated solely to rest and rehabilitation could lead to a spryer Jaquez in the games that matter most.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2022
It’s spryer, friskier and, like the art of her old professor John Baldessari, it comes across its philosophical profundity partly through jest.
From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2020
Wrinkled and gray-haired, with a drooping face that seems designed for a spryer, thinner metal endoskeleton, Mr. Schwarzenegger, the no-longer-quite-so-muscle-bound action star, certainly looks the former.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 30, 2015
Aunt Puss was already at her place, so she was spryer than she looked.
From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck
Vigorous essays by the spryest fat man now writing.
From Time Magazine Archive
To lighten the mood, by ones and threes the spryest fans took slides on the tarp, ultimately including a pretty girl in a pink dress.
From Time Magazine Archive
Senate's spryest Democrats got set to observe high-seniority birthdays without fuss this week.
From Time Magazine Archive
One of the world's spryest septuagenarians, she had long kept a schedule that would have left most younger people exhausted.
From Time Magazine Archive
Now there’s Eric; that chap used to be a hustler and the spryest dancer in all this section—called all the dances.
From A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays by Willa Sibert Cather
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
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.
