lively

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Full of energy and enthusiasm.

   The party was lively, with music and dancing until midnight.

2. 2
   adj

   Full of activity and excitement.

   We had a lively discussion about politics over dinner.

3. 3
   adj

   Bright, vivid, and strong in colour.

   She painted the wall in a lively shade of orange.

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċ (“living, lively, long-lived, necessary to life, vital”), from Proto-West Germanic *lībalīk (“living, lively”), equivalent to life + -ly. Cognate with Scots lively, lifely (“of or pertaining to life, vital, living, life-like”), Old High German līblīh (“living, animated”), German leiblich (“bodily, corporeal”). Doublet of lifely and lifelike.

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