zippy
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of zippy
Explanation
Zippy can mean speedy, or bright and spirited. You may wake up in a zippy mood, full of energy, and jump in your zippy little car so you can get to school early. When an object is zippy, it moves fast or energetically, like the zippy robotic vacuum cleaner that regularly terrifies your cat. And when people are zippy, they're spirited, like a zippy dance troupe. Language can be zippy too — think of wisecracking dialog or clever wordplay. This informal adjective comes from zip, "the sound of something moving rapidly."
Vocabulary lists containing zippy
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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:
It’s muscular and thrilling and zippy, even though at over two and a half hours long, it has a toy dump truck’s worth of plot.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
The economy expanded at zippy 4.4% annual pace in the third quarter of 2025, an updated estimate showed, to keep the U.S. on track to score the fifth straight year of above-average growth.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 22, 2026
HBM stands for high-bandwidth memory, a zippy, costly kind used for artificial intelligence.
From Barron's ● Jan. 2, 2026
If your family leans wine, pick a single bottle that actually suits the meal: something crisp and acidic like a zippy Sauvignon Blanc, a light-bodied floral Beaujolais or even a gently funky orange wine.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2025
The zippy whir of the trashman's small orb motor rose in pitch as he steered the boat out into the central channel of the river.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
Now carriers are turning to satellites to offer zippier speeds that compare to what customers can get on the ground.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
And we do mean anything: soups, salads, grilled meats, dips and even casseroles as a zippier alternative to fried onions.
From Salon ● Mar. 16, 2023
On paper, it looks like the Corolla Cross should be zippier, but the Chevy’s turbocharged nature makes its power and torque more readily accessible at low rpm.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
As a guide, Cuchna can be too earnest for my liking — Kirk Hamilton’s “Strong Songs” podcast is much more fun, much zippier — but Cuchna is astute and digs into lots of juicy stuff.
From Washington Post ● May 5, 2020
And a good number of tweens and teenagers have already migrated from “their parent’s Facebook” to zippier sites like Snapchat, Instagram and Tumblr, all of which feel less welcoming to the 20th reunion crowd.
From New York Times ● May 3, 2013
This might be the zippiest roast chicken and potatoes recipe out there.
From New York Times ● Jun. 28, 2022
Misha Berson, The Seattle Times: “… the zippiest and least synthetic or mawkish in a glut of recent musicals spun off hit movies and Billboard backlists.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2019
The Chevrolet Bolt, the all-electric coupe just introduced by General Motors, isn’t the first or the zippiest all-electric vehicle on the market.
From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2016
Here, a rundown of the zippiest models, including those coming out in the next few years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2016
The movie…explodes into the year’s wittiest, zippiest adventure, with each knockout action sequence eclipsing the last and with echoes of ’60s James Bond films and Fantastic Four comic books.
From Time ● Nov. 5, 2014
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.
