silly season

noun

1

: a period (such as late summer) when the mass media often focus on trivial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories

2

: a period marked by frivolous, outlandish, or illogical activity or behavior

Did you know?

Silly season was coined in the 19th century to describe the time when journalists face a bit of a conundrum: Washington is on summer break and European governments are on vacation, but the columns of space newspapers typically devote to politics must still be filled—hence, stories about beating the heat and how celebrities are also managing to do so. The idea is comical, really, since there's always something going on somewhere. P.G. Wodehouse understood the absurdity inherent in the term when he wrote in his 1909 comic novel, The Swoop! or How Clarence Saved England, "It was inevitable, in the height of the Silly Season, that such a topic as the simultaneous invasion of Great Britain by nine foreign powers should be seized upon by the press." Inevitable indeed.

Examples of silly season in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This normally silly season has turned sinister, and the stakes to Democrats are existential. —Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 10 Aug. 2025

This year’s ‘silly season’ (and potential for more brunch interruptions) all seemed to revolve around Max Verstappen’s future. —Luke Smith, New York Times, 31 July 2025

If the club handles their business and impresses over the next two weeks, however, the Canucks could yet be inclined to chart a very different, and less patient path through the NHL’s traditional silly season. —Thomas Drance, The Athletic, 22 Feb. 2025

Christmas approaches, and with it the silly season in our national politics. —Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 16 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1861, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for silly season

• milesian
• partizan
• postseason
• preseason
• unreason
• reason
• seizin
• treason

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