Pretty Meaning
/ˈpɹɪt.i/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjPleasant to the sight or other senses; attractive, especially of women or children.
adjOf objects or things: nice-looking, appealing.
Sentence Examples
"This looks pretty interesting," Hiroshi says.
How do you spell "pretty"?
That was a pretty dumb thing to do.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
She wore a ____ dress to the party and everyone complimented her.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The cottage was ____ in a simple way, with roses climbing the walls and a neat front garden.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English prety, preti, praty, prati, from Old English prættiġ (“tricky, crafty, sly, cunning, wily, astute”), from Proto-West Germanic *prattug, from Proto-Germanic *prattugaz (“boastful, sly, slick, deceitful, tricky, cunning”), corresponding to prat (“trick”) + -y. Doublet of pratty. Cognate with Dutch prettig (“nice, pleasant”), Low German prettig (“funny”), Icelandic prettugur (“deceitful, tricky”). For the semantic development, compare canny, clever, cute.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Having brought it to a close, he took his way to the Kursaal. The great German watering-place is one of the prettiest nooks in Europe, and of a summer evening in the gaming days, five-and-twenty years ago, it was one of the most brilliant scenes."
— 1879, Henry James, chapter III, in Confidence, London: Chatto & Windus:
"Hal Smith, manager of the Ferry Field theatre, Detroit, one of the largest and prettiest outskirt houses in town, played Metro's "Revelation" for three days last week"
— 1917, Michigan Film Review, page 347:
"The face which emerged was not reassuring.[…]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls."
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
"To escape a violent beating from sailors to whom he has sold a non-functioning car, Jerry takes his stepfamily for a holiday in a trailer park miles away, where, miraculously, young Nick meets a very pretty young woman called Sheeni, played by Portia Doubleday."
— 2010 February 4, Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian:
"Some fans may have mistaken the album’s floatiness for aimlessness, but Mr. Mercer’s songs have never been sneakier, or prettier."
— 2007 October 25, Kelefa Sanneh, “Songs With a Sneaky Streak”, in The New York Times:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She wore a ____ dress to the party and everyone complimented her.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The cottage was ____ in a simple way, with roses climbing the walls and a neat front garden.