lively
adjective · noun · adverb
Form of live , adverb of live.
Simple meaning
Full of life and energy.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lyvleeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlaɪvli
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Full of life and energy
Full of life; energetic, vivacious.
Bright, glowing, vivid; strong, vigorous.
of beer
Fizzy; foamy; tending to produce a large head in the glass.
noun
A characteristical surname.
An urban area of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
adverb
Vibrantly, vividly.
Vigorously.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Full of life and energy
Used this way, lively is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- peppy , rarer, so it draws attention
- zippy , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use lively
- “A lively discussion.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.