Starry

How to spell starry

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce starry

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does starry mean?

1. adjectiveFilled with stars, or shining and twinkling like the stars.

Starry in a sentence

• The campsite offered a clear, starry view far from the city lights.

• They walked home under a cold, starry winter sky.

Where does starry come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the ancient Germanic noun 'star', which in Old English was 'steorra', a word for the points of light in the night sky. That noun has cousins all across the Germanic family, including Dutch 'ster' and German 'Stern', and it ultimately traces back to a shared Indo-European root that also gave Latin 'stella' and Greek 'aster'. The adjective form 'starry', meaning 'full of stars' or 'shining like a star', was formed within English by adding the productive '-y' suffix to 'star'. Because the base word ends in a single vowel plus a single consonant, that final 'r' is doubled when the suffix is attached, which is exactly the spot where writers slip and leave it as a single 'r'. The same doubling pattern shows up in relatives such as 'furry' from 'fur' and 'blurry' from 'blur'.

How the word is built

• star (the celestial body)
• -ry (adjective suffix, here doubling the r before the -y)