holly

Other forms of holly

plural

hollies·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about holly

What does holly mean?

holly means "any tree or shrub of the genus Ilex having red berries and shiny evergreen leaves with prickly edges". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in holly?

holly has 2 syllables: hol-ly. The stress falls on "hol". In IPA it is /ˈhɑli/.

What is another word for holly?

Close synonyms include Buddy Holly, Charles Hardin Holley. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is holly a common word?

holly is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.