SCALY
What does "SCALY" mean?
Covered with scales, or dry and flaky like the surface of scaled skin.
Meanings
- Covered with or having scales, as a fish or reptile. A scaly lizard basked on the warm stone wall.
- Dry, rough, and peeling in thin flakes. The cold weather left her hands red and scaly.
- Mean, untrustworthy, or shabby. That was a pretty scaly thing to do to a friend. informal
Word origin
From 'scale' (a thin plate on skin, from Old French 'escale', shell or husk) plus the adjective suffix '-y'.
Remember it
SCALY = SCALE minus the E, plus Y; strip the silent E off a fish and you get its texture.
A little poem
Sun on the dry creek-
the snake's old skin, scaly still,
left like a receipt.
haiku
Wordplay
- My dermatologist and my fishmonger both called my hands scaly. Only one of them was being literal.
What it teaches
A protective armor and a neglected dryness can look the same from outside; touch tells you which is alive.
Quick facts
What does SCALY mean?
Covered with scales, or dry and flaky like the surface of scaled skin.
Is SCALY a valid word?
Yes — SCALY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is SCALY?
SCALY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does SCALY come from?
From 'scale' (a thin plate on skin, from Old French 'escale', shell or husk) plus the adjective suffix '-y'.
What can SCALY teach us?
A protective armor and a neglected dryness can look the same from outside; touch tells you which is alive.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.