silly season
/ˈsɪli ˈsizən/
"silly-season" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“silly season” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A period, usually during the summertime, when news media tend to place increased emphasis on reporting light-hearted, offbeat, or bizarre stories.
Corpus desk
Index EN-silly-season · silly season · English
silly season · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | silly season |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪli ˈsizən/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “silly season” in English
Rare enough to double-check
silly season is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsɪli ˈsizən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
silly season doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Possibly from an article in the 13 July 1861 edition of the London weekly newspaper The Saturday Review (see quotation). The correct English form is silly season, spelled S-I-L-L-Y- -S-E-A-S-O-N.
Definition
- 1A period, usually during the summertime, when news media tend to place increased emphasis on reporting light-hearted, offbeat, or bizarre stories.
- 2A period of time, as during a holiday season or a political campaign, in which the behavior of an individual or group tends to become uncharacteristically frivolous, mirthful, or eccentric.
- 3The early part of a competition’s offseason, where many roster and staff changes are made based on the outcome of the season just concluded.
- 4The time of year when contract negotiations start, trades, and competitors change affiliations, frequently starting at mid-season or just before the start of free-agency, and extending to the start of the next season.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how silly season appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"Constant readers" of the Times […] must have been often amused by watching the change which yearly comes over the great journal during the months of autumn. When Parliament is no longer sitting and the gay world is no longer gathered together in London, something very different is supposed to do for the remnant of the public from what is needed in the po…
The amount of space at the disposal of newspapers, and the want of something to talk about and write about, produced that mild autumnal effect known as the silly season, which sets in when there is a lull in politics, and a dearth of news.
Etymology
Possibly from an article in the 13 July 1861 edition of the London weekly newspaper The Saturday Review (see quotation).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.