adjective
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full of or exposed to sunlight
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radiating good humour
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of or resembling the sun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sunny
Explanation
Sunny means shining with bright sunlight, like a beautiful sunny Saturday at the beach. It can also mean cheerful, like your sunny, upbeat best friend. When the sun is shining, it's a sunny day, and when you're smiling and friendly, you're sunny too. Sunny has been used in this figurative way since the 16th century, and in the 1830s, sunny side came to mean "optimistic outlook." However, if you order your eggs sunny side up, it just means you'll get two fried eggs with bright yellow, runny yolks.
Vocabulary lists containing sunny
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -y
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Spelling Practice 1, Unit 6
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Boathouse also has a sunny dockside bar on a wooden deck.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 12, 2026
On a sunny morning a few weeks after Freeport received the exemption, white smoke poured from its smelter above a Baptist church and residential neighborhood.
From Salon • May 10, 2026
The markets got an unwelcome reminder today that the war in Iran isn’t over, clouding a picture that’s recently been dominated by sunny earnings reports.
From Barron's • May 4, 2026
Gamble’s trial, on a sunny Wednesday in mid-April, had drawn an unusually large crowd of about 80 or so outside the municipal court building.
From Slate • May 4, 2026
Jess loved her new room, which was bright and sunny.
From "I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980" by Lauren Tarshis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
