Sleepy

How to spell sleepy

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sleepy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sleepy mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling a need or inclination to sleep; drowsy.
2. adjectiveQuiet and without much activity, as a small or slow-paced place.

Sleepy in a sentence

• The long drive home left her feeling sleepy by dusk.

• They retired to a sleepy village on the coast.

• A heavy lunch always makes him sleepy at his desk.

• The once busy port is now a sleepy little town.

Where does sleepy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word sleepy is built from the native English noun sleep, which descends from the Old English slǣp, meaning the natural state of rest in which the eyes close and consciousness fades. That noun traces back to a Proto-Germanic root that also gave Dutch slaap and German Schlaf, so it has close cousins across the Germanic family. The adjective form was made simply by adding the suffix -y, an ancient English ending meaning 'full of' or 'inclined to', which turns sleep into 'inclined to sleep'. This pattern is the same one behind words like dusty, cloudy, and noisy, where a plain noun gains a -y to describe a quality. Because both parts are thoroughly native and the spelling is regular, sleepy carries no foreign quirks; the only mild point to watch is that the silent final e of 'sleep' is kept before the -y.

How the word is built

• sleep (from Old English slǣp: rest)
• -y (adjective suffix meaning 'full of, inclined to')