is “silly” a negative word？
Hi, I wonder whether the word “silly” means any thing negatively or offensively?

Under most of the situations, I use this word for teasing, silly cat and silly me. Sometimes, I also use it to soften my opinions; It sounds silly that …….

I may miss use the word and just provoked an outbreak. Perhaps, the word means more or means much stronger than I know？

Question

is “silly” a negative word？
Hi, I wonder whether the word “silly” means any thing negatively or offensively?

Under most of the situations, I use this word for teasing, silly cat and silly me. Sometimes, I also use it to soften my opinions; It sounds silly that …….

I may miss use the word and just provoked an outbreak. Perhaps, the word means more or means much stronger than I know？

Answer

Your usage of the word is correct. it's not really offensive, but it does imply that the thing being described as "silly" is almost childlike.

Answer

Silly is a word that’s not terribly offensive, or at most only mildly so.  If I say to someone, „Don‘t be silly“ some people might find it mildly offensive, but someone who knows the language would never find it as offensive as „Don’t be a fool“ (stronger) or „Don’t be an idiot.“(worse.) And, of course, you can get a lot more offensive than that.

Answer

Hello, Yi Zhang.

You are using the word properly. Depending on context, or your tone of voice, a person may take offense at the word. Some people don't like to be called silly. But generally speaking, you are correct.

David Graham is correct, too, in noting that it has the connotation of "childish", which might be offensive to some people.

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