sunny
Americanadjective
-
full of or exposed to sunlight
-
radiating good humour
-
of or resembling the sun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of sunny
Explanation
Sunny means shining with bright sunlight, like a beautiful sunny Saturday at the beach. It can also mean cheerful, like your sunny, upbeat best friend. When the sun is shining, it's a sunny day, and when you're smiling and friendly, you're sunny too. Sunny has been used in this figurative way since the 16th century, and in the 1830s, sunny side came to mean "optimistic outlook." However, if you order your eggs sunny side up, it just means you'll get two fried eggs with bright yellow, runny yolks.
Vocabulary lists containing sunny
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -y
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Spelling Practice 1, Unit 6
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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:
Mr. Thompson retraces the doomed hike on a sunny September day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
You’re walking on the sunny side of the street, for sure.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
The cause of the latest disaster, which happened on a straight stretch of track in sunny, dry conditions, was unknown.
From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026
On a sunny Thursday morning, I meet the artist at the Brick, where he is in the process of installing his show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026
And the lacquer made every piece glimmer like still water on a sunny day.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
Warsh offered a sunnier interpretation of why Treasury yields have moved higher, citing increased expectations for economic growth and the artificial-intelligence investment boom, alongside geopolitical risks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
North Sea coasts from Northumberland to Suffolk could remain cloudy and misty on Saturday but should be much sunnier on Sunday.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
With high pressure building, it will turn drier and sunnier for most parts of the United Kingdom.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
Before relocating to a quieter, sunnier place by the beach, I lived in and around New York City for nearly a decade.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2026
I thought it'd get sunnier once we crossed the bridge, but the weather’s overcast, a dull gray.
From "The House That Lou Built" by Mae Respicio
Temperatures will generally be a few degrees above the seasonal norm and could possibly reach 23C in the sunniest parts of southern England.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
In his review, Roger Ebert called her “one of the sunniest and most natural of actresses.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
The month of July was also the "sunniest month ever observed" in Britain, the Met Office said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
Despite 2025 being the sunniest year on record, it was only an average year for butterflies overall, ranking 20th out of the past 50.
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026
My mother avoided the market, and my brothers stayed inside on even the sunniest days.
From "Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World" by Malala Yousafzai
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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.
