Selly

//ˈsɛli// adj, adv, noun

adj, adv, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A marvel; wonder; something wonderful or rare Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal

    "The line is a masterstroke of noncommitment, for the event is a "selly" in the sight of some unidentified readers."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Rare; wonderful; admirable Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal
Adverb
  1. 1
    Wonderfully, wondrously. Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal

    "His brother was […] selly sick and sore unsound."

Synonyms

All synonyms
enchantingfew and far betweenfinger-lickin' goodimpressiveinfrequentlovely jubbly

Example

More examples

"His brother was […] selly sick and sore unsound."

Etymology

From Middle English selly, selly, sellich, from Old English sellīċ, seldlīċ (“rare, strange, wondrous”), from Proto-West Germanic *seldalīk, from Proto-Germanic *seldalīkaz, equivalent to seld + -ly. Cognate with Scots selly, silly (“approved, good, worthy”), Old Saxon seldlīk (“rare, wonderful”), Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌻𐌳𐌰𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌺𐍃 (sildaleiks, “wonderful”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.