playful

• playfull (archaic)

From Middle English pleiful, equivalent to play +‎ -ful.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpleɪfl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪfəl, -eɪfʊl

playful (comparative playfuller or more playful, superlative playfullest or most playful)

1. liking play, prone to play frequently, such as a child or kitten; rather sportive.

   Actually, we are pretty playful in our romantic life.

2. funny, humorous, jesting, frolicsome, frisky.

   John is a playful fellow.

   A party hat is a playful conical hat people wear at parties.

   • 1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 593:

     Why this already very fast train should be speeded up still further, when none of the other more easily timed S.R. West of England trains has a single minute pared from its schedule, is unexplained - unless this is a playful dig at the Western Region, most of whose expresses, by reason of additional stops, will be decelerated from the same date.

3. fun, recreational, not serious.

   A brainteaser is a playful puzzle posed as a test of intelligence.

4. experimental.

   He was a rather playful artist.