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curly

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Having curls or waves.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kurlee

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɝli

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. of hair

    Having curls or waves

    “They envied her naturally curly hair.”

  2. typography

    Curling in a direction, as opposed to straight (quotation marks or apostrophes)

  3. Australia

    Complicated and difficult; knotty.

noun

  1. humorous

    A nickname for a bald person.

  2. A person or animal with curly hair.

  3. A nickname for a person with curly hair.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

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More ways to use curly

  • “They envied her naturally curly hair.”adjective

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How this word naturally appears with others.

curly browncurly rednaturally curlycurly billcurly maplecurly tailcurly beard

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • crisp

    Of hair: curling, especially in tight, stiff curls or ringlets.

  • wavy

    Full of waves.

  • ringleted

    With the hair in ringlets.

  • frizzly

    Having small, tight curls.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • curly clematisnounCompound term

    Climber of southern United States having bluish-purple flowers.

  • curly-coated retrievernounCompound term

    An English breed having a tightly curled black or liver-colored coat.

  • curly endivenounCompound term

    Crisp spiky leaves with somewhat bitter taste.

  • curly grassnounCompound term

    Rare small fern of northeastern North America having numerous slender spiraling fronds and forming dense tufts.

  • curly grass fernnounCompound term

    Rare small fern of northeastern North America having numerous slender spiraling fronds and forming dense tufts.

  • curly-headsnounCompound term

    Shrubby clematis of the eastern United States having curly foliage.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: having curls or waves

crispDatedwavy

noun

Sense: nickname for a bald person

crispfrizzyRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.