Sparkly

How to spell sparkly

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sparkly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sparkly mean?

1. adjectiveShining with many small flashing points of light, or covered in glitter.

Sparkly in a sentence

• She chose a sparkly dress for the office party.

• The frost made the lawn look sparkly in the morning sun.

Where does sparkly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This adjective grows out of the Old English noun spearca, meaning a small glowing particle thrown off by something burning, a native Germanic word with cousins across the old North Sea languages. From that noun English formed the verb 'sparkle' by adding the frequentative ending -le, which adds the sense of doing something repeatedly or in little bursts, so to sparkle is to give off many tiny flashes of light. The adjective 'sparkly' was then built simply by dropping the silent e and adding the everyday -y suffix that turns a noun or verb into a 'full of this quality' word, exactly as 'dirt' becomes 'dirty'. It is a comparatively modern, informal coinage rather than a borrowing, which is why it feels so plain and homely. The main spelling point to remember is that the e of 'sparkle' vanishes before the -y, leaving the cluster -kly rather than -kley.

How the word is built

• spark (a small fiery particle)
• -le (frequentative, giving 'sparkle')
• -y (adjective: full of, characterised by)