pretty

adjective

pret·ty | \ ˈpri-tē

, ˈpər- also ˈpru̇-

prettier; prettiest

Definition of pretty

(Entry 1 of 4)

1a : artful, clever

b : pat, apt

2a : pleasing by delicacy or grace

b : having conventionally accepted elements of beauty

c : appearing or sounding pleasant or nice but lacking strength, force, manliness, purpose, or intensity pretty words that make no sense— Elizabeth B. Browning

3a : miserable, terrible a pretty mess you've gotten us into

b chiefly Scotland : stout

4 : moderately large : considerable a very pretty profit cost a pretty penny

5 : easy to enjoy : pleasant —usually used in negative constructions reality is not so pretty— Caleb Solomon

pretty

adverb

pret·ty | \ ˈpri-tē

, ˈpər- also ˈpru̇-; before "near(ly)" often ˈpərt or ˈprit or ˈpru̇t

Definition of pretty (Entry 2 of 4)

1a : in some degree : moderately pretty cold weather

b : quite, mainly the wound was … pretty bad— Walt Whitman

2 : in a gracefully pleasing manner : prettily pop vocalists who can sing pretty— Gerald Levitch

pretty much

: mainly, largely

pretty

noun

pret·ty | \ ˈpri-tē

, ˈpər- also ˈpru̇-

plural pretties

Definition of pretty (Entry 3 of 4)

1 pretties plural : dainty clothes especially : lingerie

2 : a pretty person or thing

pretty

verb

pret·ty | \ ˈpri-tē

, ˈpər- also ˈpru̇-

prettied; prettying

Definition of pretty (Entry 4 of 4)

transitive verb

: to make pretty —usually used with up curtains to pretty up the room

Other Words from pretty Synonyms & Antonyms Choose the Right Synonym Using Pretty as an Adverb: Usage Guide More Example Sentences Learn More about pretty

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Other Words from pretty

Adjective

prettily \ ˈpri-tə-lē

, ˈpər- also ˈpru̇- \ adverb

prettyish \ ˈpri-tē-ish

, ˈpər- also ˈpru̇- \ adjective

Choose the Right Synonym for pretty

Adjective

beautiful, lovely, handsome, pretty, comely, fair mean exciting sensuous or aesthetic pleasure. beautiful applies to whatever excites the keenest of pleasure to the senses and stirs emotion through the senses. beautiful mountain scenery lovely is close to beautiful but applies to a narrower range of emotional excitation in suggesting the graceful, delicate, or exquisite. a lovely melody handsome suggests aesthetic pleasure due to proportion, symmetry, or elegance. a handsome Georgian mansion pretty often applies to superficial or insubstantial attractiveness. a painter of conventionally pretty scenes comely is like handsome in suggesting what is coolly approved rather than emotionally responded to. the comely grace of a dancer fair suggests beauty because of purity, flawlessness, or freshness. fair of face

Using Pretty as an Adverb: Usage Guide

Adverb

Some handbooks complain that pretty is overworked and recommend the selection of a more specific word or advise that pretty should be restricted to informal or colloquial contexts. Pretty is used to tone down a statement and is in wide use across the whole spectrum of English. It is common in informal speech and writing but is neither rare nor wrong in serious discourse he may, if he be pretty well off or clever, qualify himself as a doctor — G. B. Shaw a return to those traditions of American foreign policy which worked pretty well for over a century — H. S. Commager the arguments for buying expensive books have to be pretty cogent — The Times Literary Supplement (London)

Examples of pretty in a Sentence

Adjective

This white shape stood apart by the hedge alone. From her position he knew it to be the pretty maiden with whom he had not danced. Trifling as the matter was, he yet instinctively felt that she was hurt by his oversight. — Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 1891 Darcy, on the contrary, had seen a collection of people in whom there was little beauty and no fashion, for none of whom he had felt the smallest interest, and from none received either attention or pleasure. Miss Bennet he acknowledged to be pretty, but she smiled too much. — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813 He made a pretty profit selling his antique car. She received a pretty sum of money.

Adverb

By taunting the police, beating drums and throwing rocks, the rioters make it pretty clear that they want not a rational debate but the world's attention … — Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, 30 Apr. 2001 … I could pretty much go wherever I felt a story led … — Roy Blount, Jr., New York Times Book Review, 9 Mar. 1986 … regards most of us as pretty irrevocably plunged in illusion. — Iris Murdoch, The Fire and the Sun, 1977 The reflected radiance served to show, pretty distinctly, the aspect and arrangement of the room which Hepzibah entered, after descending the stairs. — Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of Seven Gables, 1851 “Did you put the keys on the table?” “I'm pretty sure I did.” The teams are pretty equally matched. The work is pretty hard. I have to leave pretty soon. The movie was pretty good but not great. They've accomplished some pretty amazing things. She was driving pretty fast.

Verb

She prettied the cake with icing, sprinkles, and nuts.

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective

Everyone wanted to be the best, the fittest, the prettiest. — Kayleigh Roberts, Marie Claire, "Kate Middleton Was "Desperately Unhappy" and Tortured by Bullies at Her First Secondary School, Downe House," 10 Mar. 2019 There is also the fact that 1999 happened to be a pretty major year for movies and franchises involving otherworldly beings. — Rebecca Jennings, Vox, "Ghosts, witches, zombies: which supernatural creature makes the most money at the box office?," 31 Oct. 2018 Refined yet unapologetically pretty, Larson’s look set a new standard for millennial superheroes. — Janelle Okwodu, Vogue, "This Week, Stars Fell for Romantic Fashion and Mixed Prints," 11 Mar. 2019 Pre-teething is generally pretty tame and may not even seem out of the ordinary. — Karla Walsh, Woman's Day, "When Do Babies Start Teething?," 26 Feb. 2019 With all of the pretty pastel outfits and gorgeous Easter cakes, there will be plenty of photo opportunities on April 21. — Kelly O'sullivan, Country Living, "40+ Easter Captions for Every Instagram Picture You Post This Year," 21 Feb. 2019 Slimane supplanted the tepidly pretty, bourgeois style of the house’s previous designer, Stefano Pilati, with a rock-and-roll spirit more appropriate for Hollywood Boulevard than Paris’s rue de Grenelle. — Alexandra Marshall, WSJ, "Exclusive: Step Inside YSL’s New Parisian Headquarters," 15 Feb. 2019 The trio of lights will form a pretty alignment, with Venus appearing as the brightest starlike object in the entire western sky. — National Geographic, "Naked-Eye Asteroid and More Can't-Miss Sky Events in June," 1 June 2018 CoolSculpting is generally a pretty quick treatment. — Roxanne Adamiyatt, Town & Country, "Everything You Need to Know About CoolSculpting (and Were Too Afraid to Ask)," 11 Jan. 2019

Recent Examples on the Web: Adverb

Others, like cheddar, Parmesan, and Swiss, are pretty good at resisting mold. — Audrey Bruno, SELF, "How to Know if Food Has Gone Bad By Looking at It and Smelling It," 3 Apr. 2019 The recovery process has luckily been pretty good, but taking two weeks off of work was incredibly hard. — Vogue, "Sea of Shoes’ Jane Aldridge on Her Battle With Endometriosis—And How She’s Coping With Chronic Pain," 1 Apr. 2019 What initially looked like a bad retail sales report was actually pretty good. — Justin Lahart, WSJ, "A Perfectly Good Bad Retail Sales Report," 1 Apr. 2019 Future cameos and directing stints aside, The Perfectionists has been doing a pretty good job of keeping fans in the loop regarding their favorite Rosewood residents. — De Elizabeth, Teen Vogue, "Ashley Benson and Troian Bellisario Might Direct Upcoming Episodes of "The Perfectionists"," 31 Mar. 2019 There’s pretty good data that CBD can be a treatment for substance abuse disorders. — Laurel Leicht, Marie Claire, "An Expert Answers All Your Questions About CBD," 26 Mar. 2019 So its costs are lower, at least compared to what has been the alternative in this country for a long time, and people usually get pretty good benefits. — Dylan Scott, Vox, "Is employer-sponsored insurance really a good deal for workers?," 7 Feb. 2019 Cassie's hometown date was, in retrospect at least, pretty rough. — Kayleigh Roberts, Marie Claire, "Colton and Cassie from 'The Bachelor' Had a Hometown Date Do Over," 20 Mar. 2019 The yuan has, in fact, been pretty stable recently, even climbing 3% against the dollar since November—and for reasons that go beyond rising odds of a deal. — Nathaniel Taplin, WSJ, "Trump Wants a Strong Yuan—He May Get It Regardless," 18 Mar. 2019

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

That was 2013 and the beginning of the time when models who weren’t cookie-cutter-pretty were getting booked. — Amanda Fitzsimons, Glamour, "Winnie Harlow: ‘It’s Beautiful That the Age of Cookie-Cutter Models Is Ending’," 1 June 2018 For my mom, who still keeps her recipes on index cards, this beyond-pretty box. — Meredith Rollins, Redbook, "One Stylish Mother: Cyber Monday Shopping at See Jane Work," 1 Dec. 2013 Pretty late in the game for a free agent to be looking for a new ride. — Jim Ayello, Indianapolis Star, "'It hurts the sport.' Tony Kaanan explains the cruelty of IndyCar free agency," 14 July 2017 Wick’s Pizza, 12717 Shelbyville Road, 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 18 (Prism Petals); 975 Baxter Ave., 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 19 (Pretty Plumes). — The Courier-Journal, "50+ fun things for week of July 13-19," 12 July 2017 Pretty says he's known for having a sense of humor on his spots, and people seeing it all over the country wouldn't be aware of that. — Luke O'neil, Esquire, "R.I.P., Weather Boi, the Funniest Meme We Barely Got to Know," 29 June 2017

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

The Ugly Other games that are not as beautiful Verdict: Lots of stuff to do and pretty things to look at, but few fresh ideas. — Daniel Starkey, Ars Technica, "Assassin’s Creed Odyssey," 4 Oct. 2018 One of the ideas envisioned by Vivo is to take in a full body scan of a person and then feed that information to a beautification AI that would more intelligently and proportionately pretty you up. — Vlad Savov, The Verge, "Vivo’s new face ID tech has 10 times as many sensor points as the iPhone X," 27 June 2018 From have resurrected the game, prettying it up a bit, and will release it in the United States later this year. — Brad Chacos, PCWorld, "The best PC games of E3 2018," 15 June 2018 Thus, the strategy was designed to produce either a win with virtually no GOP concessions, or a government shutdown that could pretty cleanly be blamed on Democrats. — Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, "Ryan’s Strategy May Be Backfiring, Earning GOP Blame for a Government Shutdown," 17 Jan. 2018 But in his mind, a year of prettying up the town (as well as spending about $200,000 of city funds on preparing for and carrying out the event) might pay off in making prospective students aware of the school. — Joe Pinsker, The Atlantic, "So, Eclipse Boomtowns, How’d It Go?," 23 Aug. 2017 The reporters picked at it, concerned about getting the facts straight and looking to pretty up their now-public images. — Douglas Perry, OregonLive.com, "Trump-Russia probe renews interest in 'All the President's Men,' where the real scandal hit 35 years later," 14 June 2017 First is a look at some of the top games involving area teams in Week 1 of the season (Aug. 18): 1.Center Grove at Warren Central: Pretty easy one to pick here. — Kyle Neddenriep, Indianapolis Star, "High school football: 10 games to watch in Week 1 of the season," 26 June 2017 What questions Congress will want to know: Pretty much everything above. — Amber Phillips, chicagotribune.com, "Why Jeff Sessions' testimony on Russia is important," 13 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pretty.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.