different between sunny vs sunly

English

Etymology

From Middle English sunni, from Old English *sunni?. Cognate with West Frisian sinnich, Low German sünnig, Dutch zonnig, German sonnig. Equivalent to sun +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?ni/
• Rhymes: -?ni
• Homophone: sonny

Adjective

sunny (comparative sunnier, superlative sunniest)

1. (of weather or a day) Featuring a lot of sunshine.

   Whilst it may be sunny today, the weather forecast is predicting rain.

2. (of a place) Receiving a lot of sunshine.

   the sunny side of a hill

   I would describe Spain as sunny, but it's nothing in comparison to the Sahara.

3. (figuratively, of a person or a person's mood) cheerful

   a sunny disposition

   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors Act I scene 1

     My decayed fair / A sunny look of his would soon repair.

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge

     A gleam of sun shining through the unsashed window, and chequering the dark workshop with a broad patch of light, fell full upon him, as though attracted by his sunny heart.

4. Of or relating to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; shiny; radiant.

   • sunny beams

Synonyms

• (weather, day): bright; sunshiny
• (place): sunlit
• (person): bright, cheerful

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

sunny (not comparable)

1. (US, regional) sunny side up

Noun

sunny (plural sunnies)

1. A sunfish.

English

Etymology

From Middle English sonnelych, sunnelich, from Old English sunl?? (“of the sun, solar”). Equivalent to sun +? -ly.

Adjective

sunly (comparative sunlier or more sunly, superlative sunliest or most sunly)

1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Sun; solar.
   • 1874, Lew Wallace, The fair God:

     Aside he flung his sunly symbols. Like a falling star, from the Vale of Gods He dropp'd, like a falling star shot through the Shoreless space; like a golden morning reach'd The earth, —reach'd the lake.

   • 1907, Harper's magazine:

     "Nay, The sun is single, but her eyes are twain, — Twain firmaments that mock with heavenlier hue The heavens' less lordly and less gracious blue, And lit with sunlier sunlight through and through."

   • 2001, Carl M. Franklin, Carolyn Craig Franklin: Favorite Poems, Quotes and Hymns:

     She agreed with Mark Twain that it "is the peacefulest, restfulest, sunliest, balmiest, dreamiest haven of refuge [...] the surface of the earth can offer."

2. (by extension in contrast with moonly) Sane.
   • 1964, Norman Friedman, E. E. Cummings; the growth of a writer:

     [...] than to win less never than alive less bigger than the least begin less littler than forgive it is most sane and sunly and more it cannot die than all the sky which only is higher than the sky [...]

Adverb

sunly (comparative sunlier or more sunly, superlative sunliest or most sunly)

1. In a sunly manner.
   • 1863, James Wallis, David King, The British millennial harbinger:

     Hopes that beam the sunliest, Like the wavelet's silver crest, [...]

Related terms

• moonly

Anagrams

• unsly