racy
/ˈɹeɪsi/adjective
racy is an adjective meaning “Mildly risqué” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-A-C-Y and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does racy mean?
adjective
- 1
Mildly risqué.
She wore a racy dress that was just barely appropriate for the occasion.
- 2
Having a strong flavor indicating origin; of distinct characteristic taste; tasting of the soil.
a racy wine
- 3
Exciting to the mind by a strong or distinctive character of thought or language; peculiar and piquant; fresh and lively.
- 4
Involving a data race or a race condition.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce racy?
- /ˈɹeɪsi/
Racy has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-racy.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of racy
- racier comparative
- raciest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is racy?
Racy appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,176th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Racy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense lively and entertaining and typically slightly risque:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | picante, subido de tono |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does racy come from?
From race (“having a characteristic taste (of wines, fruits, etc.)”) + -y.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).