What does jolly mean?

jolly means "a happy party". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in jolly?

jolly has 2 syllables: jol-ly. The stress falls on "jol". In IPA it is /ˈdʒɑli/.

What is another word for jolly?

Close synonyms include jolly boat, kid, chaff, josh, banter. 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 jolly a common word?

jolly 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.

jolly — meaning, pronunciation and 5 definitions

noun

2 sensesA person, place, thing, quality or idea.

1.
a happy party
Broaderparty
United Kingdom
2.
a yawl used by a ship's sailors for general work
Synonymsjolly boat
Broaderyawl

verb

1 senseAn action, occurrence or state of being.

1.
be silly or tease one another
“After we relaxed, we just kidded around”
Synonymskid chaff josh banter
Broadertease

adjective

1 senseA word that describes or qualifies a noun.

1.
full of or showing high-spirited merriment
“when hearts were young and gay”
“a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company”
“the jolly crowd at the reunion”
“jolly old Saint Nick”
“a jovial old gentleman”
“have a merry Christmas”
“peals of merry laughter”
“a mirthful laugh”
Synonymsgay jocund jovial merry mirthful
Similarjoyous

adverb

1 senseA word that modifies a verb, adjective or other adverb.

1.
to certain extent or degree
“pretty big”
“pretty bad”
“jolly decent of him”
“the shoes are priced reasonably”
“he is fairly clever with computers”
Synonymsreasonably moderately pretty somewhat fairly middling passably

Other forms of jolly

plural: jollies·
past tense or participle: jollied
present participle: jollying·
comparative or superlative: jollier
comparative or superlative: jolliest

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 jolly

What does jolly mean?: jolly means "a happy party". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.
How many syllables are in jolly?: jolly has 2 syllables: jol-ly. The stress falls on "jol". In IPA it is /ˈdʒɑli/.
What is another word for jolly?: Close synonyms include jolly boat, kid, chaff, josh, banter. 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 jolly a common word?: jolly 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.

Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for jolly come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.