zany
Americanadjective
noun
plural
zaniesadjective
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
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
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Maniac Magee
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"Ad Power," "Without Commercials," and "What's Wrong with Advertising"
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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.
His first and possibly best-known book was published in 1978, “Even the Browns: The Zany, True Story of Baseball in the Early Forties.”
From Washington Post • Jan. 23, 2018
Zany but not precious, they add substance to a novel that otherwise has the sweet, melt-away lightness of cotton candy.
From Slate • Feb. 5, 2016
Another first-of-its-kind offering, Remy’s Totally Zany Adventure, themed after Pixar’s Paris-set “Ratatouille,” opened here in July.
From New York Times • Nov. 21, 2014
Zany decor in creative offices is not unknown, but few artistic types put their staff in uniforms.
From BBC • Jun. 24, 2012
“That had a very strong effect on the early Sesame Street. Zany, relatively quick one-liners. The kids seemed to love it.”
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
