adj
Meaning 1
Having great power of leaping or running; nimble; active.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
spry
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/spɹaɪ/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -aɪ
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CMU ARPABET: S P R AY1 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Vigorous; lively; cheerful; sprightly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
Meaning 3
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 4
moving quickly and lightly
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- sleek and agile as a gymnast
- as nimble as a deer
- nimble fingers
- quick of foot
- the old dog was so spry it was halfway up the stairs before we could stop it
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: agile, nimble, quick
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From British dialectal sprey, from Old Norse sprækr (“nimble, lively”) from Proto-Germanic *sprēkiz (“lively”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)preg- (“to strew, jerk, sprinkle, scatter”). Cognate with Icelandic sprækur (“lively, spry”), Norwegian sprek (“lively, healthy”), dialectal Swedish sprygg (“brisk, very active, skittish”). More at spark. Related to sprack, sprig, sprug, freckle.
Across languages
Translations
21 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: енергичен (energičen) — nimble, active
- Bulgarian: чевръст (čevrǎst) — nimble, active
- Czech: čilý — nimble, active
- Czech: čiperný — nimble, active
- Dutch: kwiek — nimble, active
- French: actif — nimble, active
- French: vif — nimble, active
- French: alerte — nimble, active
- French: vigilant — nimble, active
- German: agil — nimble, active
- German: beweglich — nimble, active
- German: rüstig — nimble, active
- Hungarian: fürge — nimble, active
- Hungarian: jó erőben levő — nimble, active
- Polish: na siłach — nimble, active
- Portuguese: ágil — nimble, active
- Portuguese: ativo — nimble, active
- Portuguese: serelepe — nimble, active
- Russian: бо́йкий (bójkij) — nimble, active
- Russian: подви́жный (podvížnyj) — nimble, active
- Scottish Gaelic: giobach — nimble, active