Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Silliness |
SillinessNoun1. A ludicrous folly; "the crowd laughed at the absurdity of the clown's behavior". 2. An impulsive scatterbrained manner. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "silliness" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1604. (references) |
Synonyms: SillinessSynonyms: absurdity (n), fatuity (n), fatuousness (n), giddiness (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Imbecility Folly | Noun: want of -intelligence; want of -intellect; shadowness, silliness, foolishness; Adjective: imbecility, incapacity, vacancy of mind, poverty of intellect, weakness of intellect, clouded perception, poor head, apartments to let; stupidity, stolidity; hebetude, dull understanding, meanest capacity, shortsightedness; incompetence; (unskillfulness). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Silliness |
| English words defined with "silliness": camp, campy ♦ Goosery ♦ Nonsense verses ♦ Simple obligation, Simpless. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "silliness": Ague-cheek ♦ NSA line eater ♦ studlycaps. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Silliness" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Silliness" is used about 48 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 48 | 49,194 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
silliness | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "silliness"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | marrëzi (amentia, fatuity, fatuousness, Folly, foolishness, ineptitude, insanity, lunacy, madness, nonsense, stupidity, tomfoolery), gomarllëqe. (various references) | |
Arabic | حماقة (blindness, brainlessness, brutishness, crap, doltishness, dumbness, emptiness, fatuity, fatuousness, fat-wittedness, feeblemindedness, folly, foolery, gaffe, hankey-pankey, hanky panky, idiocy, imbecility, insanity, nonsense, rot, stupidity, thick-wittedness, tomfoolery, unwisdom, weak-mindedness), غباوة (dulling, idiocy, noodles), تفاه (nonsense, smallness, tommyrot), سخافة (absurdity, fatuousness, ineptitude, ineptness, tomfoolery, tommyrot), بلاهة (brainlessness, density, dullness, idiocy, imbecility, retardation, rot, stupidity). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | глупост (density, fatuity, fatuousness, fiddlestick, foolishness, foppery, hokum, inanity, ineptitude, insanity, nonsense, puerility, simplicity, stupidity, stupidness, thick skull, trash, unreason, unwisdom). (various references) | |
Chinese | 愚 行径. (various references) | |
Czech | zpozdilost, pošetilost (Folly, foolishness), hloupost (dullness, fatuity, fatuousness, foolishness, garbage, ineptitude, ineptness, lunacy, simplicity, stupidity, trifle). (various references) | |
Dutch | frivoliteit (frivolity). (various references) | |
Esperanto | vantaĵo (frivolity). (various references) | |
Finnish | tyhmyys (folly, foolishness, stupidity). (various references) | |
French | stupidité, sottise, niaiserie (simpleness). (various references) | |
German | Albernheit (absurdity, fatuity, foolery, foolishness, inanity, ineptitude, ridiculousness, silly prank, tomfoolery). (various references) | |
Greek | βλακεία (fatuity, foolishness, goofiness, idiocy, muff, nonsense, sheepishness, stupidity, stupidness, tomfoolery), μωρία (flummery, moronism, witlessness), ανοησία (baloney, bunk, fatuity, fatuousness, foolery, foolishness, fooolishness, immunity, inanity, mush, nonsense, nonsensicalness, piffle, puerility, rot, shenanighan, tommy rot). (various references) | |
Hebrew | אוילות (fatuity, fatuously, fatuousness, foolery, foolishness, sottishness, stupidity), טפשות (foolery, inanity, stupidity, tomfoolery). (various references) | |
Hungarian | ostobaság (bunk, bushwa, crassness, doltishness, fatuity, fatuousness, flimflam, folly, foolery, foolishness, guff, haver, inanity, nonsense, piffle, rot, rubbish, stupidity, tomfoolery, tommy rot, tosh), butaság (blundering, bluntness, doltishness, fatuity, folly, piffle, tosh). (various references) | |
Indonesian | ketololan (foolishness, idiocy). (various references) | |
Italian | stupidit (density, fool, foolishness, hebetude, stupidity), sciocchezza (balderdash, flapdoodle, Folly, foolish thing, foolishness, idiocy, malarkey, nonsense, stupidity, trash, trifle), ocaggine (asininely, ineptitude, oafishness, stupid thing, stupidity, tomfoolery), cretineria. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 愚鈍 (stupidity), 愚劣 (foolishness, stupidity). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ぐど" (stupidity), ぐれつ (foolishness, stupidity), ちたい (area, delay, foolishness, procrastination, zone). (various references) | |
Manx | meecheeayllid (absurdity, absurdness, idiocy, imbecility, madness, simpleness). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | illinesssay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | semsentido (frivolity), tolice (applesauce, barney, blunder, bosh, bungle, fiddle-de-dee, flapdoodle, folly, foolery, foolishness, guff, gup, howler, ineptitude, ineptness, infelicity, moonshine, mush, nonsense, piffle, rot, simplicity, tomfoolery, tommy rot, tripe, twaddle, unreason), idiotice (stupidity, tommy rot), fútil (conceited, coxcombical, feckless, frivolity, frivolous, frothy, futile, nugatory, peddling, piddling, slight, trifling, vain), estupidez (density, fatuity, idiocy, imbecility, stupidity), coisavã (frivolity), burrice (nonsens, rubbish). (various references) | |
Romanian | imbecilitate (idiocy, imbecility, stupidity). (various references) | |
Russian | глупость (asininity, crassitude, craziness, density, fatuity, fatuousness, folly, foolery, foolishness, imbecility, inanity, long ears, piffle, stupidity, unreason, unwisdom, witlessness). (various references) | |
Scottish | sochar (compliant disposition, instability of purpose), faoineas (folly, vanity). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | glupost (flapdoodle, folly, foolishness, poppycock, stupidity, tomfoolery), budalaština (antic, flapdoodle, fudge, slipslop, tomfoolery). (various references) | |
Spanish | tontería (dispensation, farce, folly, foolery, foolishness, jiggery pokery, nonsense, trumpery). (various references) | |
Swedish | enfald (foolishness, innocence). (various references) | |
Thai | ความโง่เขลา. (various references) | |
Turkish | sersemlik (daze, dizziness, dullness, fuddle, giddiness, muddle, stupidity, stupor), salaklık (idiocity, obtuseness), saçmalık (absurdity, applesauce, balderdash, bilge, blather, blatherskite, blether, bosh, drivel, extravagance, eyewash, farce, fatuity, fiddle-faddle, flapdoodle, flimflam, flubdub, footle, gab, galimatias, gassing, gibberish, guff, hog-wash, hokum, hooey, inanity, ineptitude, ineptness, insanity, irrationality, lark, malarkey, moonshine, nonsense, piffle, poppycock, punk, rot, rubbish, shenanigan, spinach, stuff, talkee-talkee, the irrational, trash, triviality, twaddle, vacuity, whimsicality, whimsicalness, wind, wishy-wash), zevzeklik (flannel, quack), aptallık (crime, fatuity, floater, Folly, foolery, fooling, foolishness, footle, hebetude, idiocy, ineptitude, stupidity), abeslik (triviality). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | дурість (asininity, fatuity, foolishness, idiocy, imbecility, obtuseness, obtusity, opaqueness, sheepishness, stupidity). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tính ngớ ngẩn, tính ngờ nghệch, tính khờ dại (imbecility). (various references) | |
Welsh | gwiriondeb (bosh, innocence), coegedd (emptiness). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "silliness": sillinesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Silliness" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: silanols, Sillans, sillinesses, sillyness, skillness, sulliness. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "silliness" (pronounced si"lēnus) |
| 5 | -l ē n u s | cleanliness, deadliness, friendliness, ghastliness, holiness, liveliness, loneliness, orderliness, slovenliness, timeliness, ugliness, worldliness. |
| 4 | -ē n u s | airworthiness, arbitrariness, bagginess, cloudiness, clumsiness, cockiness, contrariness, coziness, craziness, creditworthiness, creepiness, dizziness, dreariness, drowsiness, edginess, emptiness, frothiness, funniness, hairiness, happiness, laziness, lousiness, nastiness, nosiness, pettiness, queasiness, raciness, readiness, riskiness, roominess, rowdiness, scantiness, shakiness, sleepiness, sloppiness, solitariness, steadiness, stinginess, sturdiness, tardiness, tastiness, trustworthiness, uneasiness, unhappiness, unwieldiness, wariness, weariness, wimpiness, worthiness. |
| 3 | -n u s | abruptness, absoluteness, acuteness, aggressiveness, agribusiness, alertness, aloofness, alumnus, Anas, androgynous, anise, appropriateness, assertiveness, astuteness, asynchronous, attentiveness, attractiveness, awareness, awfulness, awkwardness, backwardness, badness, baldness, bearishness, bigness, bitterness, bituminous, blackness, blandness, bleakness, blindness, bluntness, boldness, bonus, boorishness, brashness, brightness, bullishness, business, callousness, calmness, carelessness, casualness, cautiousness, cavernous, cheapness, chitinous, cleanness, cleverness, closeness, cohesiveness, coldness, Colonus, combativeness, compactness, competitiveness, completeness, consciousness, contagiousness, contentiousness, Conus, coolness, correctness, creativeness, crispness, crookedness, cuteness, dampness, darkness, Deaconess, deafness, decisiveness, defensiveness, destructiveness, directness, disingenuousness, distinctiveness, divisiveness, drunkenness, dryness, dullness, eagerness, earnestness, effectiveness, elusiveness, evenness, exogenous, eyewitness, faintness, fairness, farsightedness, fastness, fickleness, firmness, fitness, flatness, fondness, foolishness, forcefulness, forgiveness, forthrightness, foulness, fractiousness, frankness, freshness, fullness, furnace, gauntness, gayness, gelatinous, gentleness, genuineness, genus, gluttonous, goodness, governess, graciousness, greatness, greenness, grimness, handedness, hardness, harmfulness, harness, harshness, heinous, helplessness, highness, hoarseness, homelessness, homesickness, homogenous, hopefulness, hopelessness, humanness, idleness, illness, inclusiveness, indebtedness, indecisiveness, indigenous, ineffectiveness, ineptness, inertness, intravenous, intrusiveness, inventiveness, joblessness, Johannes, kindness, larcenous, largeness, lateness, lawlessness, lenis, lightfastness, lightness, likeness, luminous, madness, Manus, meanness, membranous, menace, Minas, mindedness, minus, monotonous, mountainous, mutinous, narrowness, nearsightedness, neatness, nervousness, newness, niceness, nitrogenous, nonbusiness, nonpoisonous, nothingness, numbness, ominous, oneness, onus, openness, otherness, outrageousness, outspokenness, pandanus, peacefulness, penis, permissiveness, persuasiveness, pervasiveness, playfulness, poisonous, politeness, polygynous, pompousness, possessiveness, powerlessness, preparedness, quickness, quietness, randomness, rareness, ravenous, rawness, reasonableness, rebelliousness, recklessness, redness, remoteness, resistiveness, resourcefulness, responsiveness, restiveness, restlessness, restrictiveness, richness, righteousness, rightness, robustness, roughness, rudeness, ruinous, ruthlessness, sacredness, sadness, Salinas, sameness, secretiveness, selfishness, selflessness, sensitiveness, separateness, seriousness, shallowness, sharpness, shortness, shortsightedness, shrewdness, shyness, sickness, sinus, skittishness, slackness, slowness, sluggishness, slyness, smallness, smoothness, smugness, softness, soundness, spiritedness, squeamishness, starkness, steadfastness, steepness, sternness, stiffness, stillness, stoutness, strangeness, stubbornness, suddenness, suggestiveness, sweetness, swiftness, tartness, tenderness, tetanus, thickness, thinness, thoroughness, thoughtfulness, tightness, tiredness, togetherness, toughness, truthfulness, unconsciousness, unfairness, uniqueness, unpleasantness, unwillingness, usefulness, vagueness, vastness, venous, viciousness, villainous, vindictiveness, vividness, voluminous, wastefulness, waterishness, weakness, weightlessness, weirdness, wellness, wetness, whiteness, wholeness, wholesomeness, wickedness, wilderness, wildness, willingness, wistfulness, witness, wonderfulness, wryness. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-i-i-l-l-n-s-s-s" | |
-2 letters: illness, seisins, sillies, sinless. | |
-3 letters: isseis, lilies, lisles, nielli, niseis, seisin, sileni, snells. | |
-4 letters: isles, issei, lenis, liens, lines, lisle, nills, nisei, sells, sills, sines, sises, snell. | |
-5 letters: ells, ills, isle, leis, lens, less, lien, lies, line, lins, ness, nill, nils, nisi, seis, sell, sels, sill, sine, sins. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-i-i-l-l-n-s-s-s" | |
+2 letters: sillinesses, sinsemillas. | |
+3 letters: chillinesses, illusiveness, illusoriness, livelinesses, misspellings, villainesses. | |
+4 letters: illicitnesses, leisureliness, liltingnesses, limitlessness, miscellanists, tonsillitises, willingnesses. | |
+5 letters: illusivenesses, illusorinesses, lifelikenesses, unlikelinesses, villainousness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Rhymes 11. Anagrams 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
