Muscle-y and muscular
What's the difference?
Thank you
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Answers · 2
3
muscly/muscley is commonly used in informal or casual UK English.
If some person is brawny or has bulging well-developed muscles, you can either call them 'muscly' or 'muscular'. In this instance, the 2 words are synonyms.
But 'muscly' is only used this way - its usage is far more narrow than 'muscular'.
'muscular' has a broader meaning and can be used in several ways:
"He suffers from the disease muscular dystrophy"
"Tigers have much more muscular strength than cats".
In these two examples, I cannot use 'muscly' instead of 'muscular'
So for describing someone with well developed muscles, you can call them 'muscly' or 'muscular'.
In other cases, you need to use 'muscular'.
2
"Muscular" would be the proper way to describe someone with defined muscles. "Muscle-y" isn't really a word and it's only ever used very casually/informally by people that, for some reason, haven't chosen to use the word, "muscular."
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