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air·y (ârē)
Share:
adj. air·i·er, air·i·est
1.
a. Open to or allowing in air; breezy or drafty: "the airy bungalows of the island's top officials" (Amitav Ghosh).
b. Extensive in area or height; spacious: "An open floor plan made bright and airy by soaring ceilings" (Country Living).
2. High in the air; lofty: airy skyscrapers.
3. Performed in the air; aerial.
4. Resembling or evocative of air, especially:
a. Having little or no substance; thin or immaterial: an airy apparition.
b. Light or delicate: an airy dress.
5. Speculative, impractical, or vacuous: airy notions of human perfectibility.
6. Haughty or affected: dismissed us with an airy wave of the hand.
7. Chiefly Irish Light-hearted; merry.
8. Archaic Of, relating to, or having the constitution of air.
airi·ly adv.
airi·ness n.
Synonyms: airy, filmy, gauzy, gossamer, sheer2
These adjectives mean so light and insubstantial as to resemble air or a thin film: airy curtains blowing at the window; the filmy wings of a moth; gauzy clouds in the sky; a gown of gossamer fabric; sheer silk stockings.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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