zany
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
-
a clown or buffoon, esp one in old comedies who imitated other performers with ludicrous effect
-
a ludicrous or foolish person
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of zany
1560–70; (< Middle French ) < Italian zan ( n ) i (later zanno ) a servant character in the commedia dell’arte, perhaps originally the character's name, the Upper Italian form of Tuscan Gianni, for Giovanni John
Explanation
If you've been called zany, you are goofy, wacky, and clownish. Zany describes very silly people and behaviors. If you break into a bad, old-guy imitation of hip-hop, you might be trying too hard to be zany. There's an old character in comedies from the 15th through the 19th centuries who always had the Italian name Gianni, or Giovanni, another form of which was "Zanni" — from which we get the adjective zany. Just as there are good clowns and kind of scary, weird clowns, zany describes both truly funny and laughable people and things, as well as foolish, or ludicrous, attempts at being funny. Something zany makes people laugh, unless it's weird zany and just makes them cringe.
Vocabulary lists containing zany
100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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!
Maniac Magee
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!
"Ad Power," "Without Commercials," and "What's Wrong with Advertising"
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:
Even if you don’t get all these visual references, it’s easy to still laugh at the Minions’ zany antics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
In our current everyone-with-a-phone-is-a-critic culture, this may sound like a particular flavor of zany.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
The very next morning, the BBC called to say they were blown away by the song's zany energy and its Euro-friendly lyrics about ditching an office job to take a mini-break in Germany.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
But the frontrunner of this awards season has long been "One Battle," a zany thriller about a retired revolutionary looking for his teen daughter.
From Barron's ● Mar. 12, 2026
Plus, Charles’s mother did not particularly care for what Mr. Lemoncello was doing inside his zany library.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
Hoping to sink the father’s chances, Al saddles LeBron with the beloved zanies Bugs, Daffy, Sylvester et al.
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2021
Missing were the usual cast of zanies dressed in wedding gowns and super hero costumes jostling with the beat writers to get their questions heard.
From Reuters ● Jan. 27, 2020
So it's fair to say that James Corden and his successor, Owain Arthur, in Richard Bean's barnstorming comic play One Man, Two Guvnors are zanies in the true sense of the word.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 5, 2012
McDonagh's zanies are grotesques devoid of decency or basic deductive skills.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 25, 2010
Thus Thomas Heywood mentions all these doctors, zanies, pantaloons, and harlequins, in which the French, and still more the Italians, distinguished themselves.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 10 by Rudd, John
“Hoppers” features zanier cartoon comedy and less tear-inducing pathos than audiences may expect from the studio behind “Up.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
The last time Salon cracked wise at the offerings listed among Oprah’s Favorite Things or the zanier items in Goop’s holiday gift guide was in 2019.
From Salon ● Nov. 4, 2023
The Shriners would become known for their philanthropy — funding children’s hospitals — but they would also be known for their zanier side: donning fezzes and zipping around in tiny cars.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2023
It couldn’t have been any zanier than this.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2022
It’s essentially “E.T.” with a sloppier, zanier touch, and it’s set in urban Vietnam as opposed to a sleepy California neighborhood.
From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2022
I’d also be lying if I said that was the only reason my husband and I share our lives with two of nature’s zaniest comics instead of a herd of small humans.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2024
“It could win best picture and it’s the zaniest idea out there,” Lord says.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 21, 2023
Even the zaniest of football fans, those in the SEC, are more devotees than connoisseurs.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2022
He has some of the zaniest lines, and Sprouse is delightfully game for all of them.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2022
Imagine you’re a kid again and given an unlimited budget to build and race the zaniest Hot Wheels track you could possibly imagine.
From The Verge ● Dec. 27, 2021
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.
