Synonyms of sportive

sportive

adjective

ˈspȯr-tiv 

as in playful

given to good-natured joking or teasing

a sportive pastor who began every sermon with a joke

Synonyms & Similar Words

• playful
• merry
• amusing
• lively
• entertaining
• sportful
• mischievous
• energetic
• antic
• frolicsome
• goofy
• frisky
• rollicking
• happy
• enjoyable
• delightful
• elfish
• larky
• coltish
• fun
• pleasing
• silly
• gay
• spirited
• whimsical
• lighthearted
• fay
• pleasant
• joking
• sprightly
• vivacious
• coy
• impish
• frolic
• spunky
• roguish
• pleasurable
• pixie
• frivolous
• jocund
• kittenish
• devilish
• teasing
• knavish
• jocose
• jocular
• trifling
• rascally
• prankish
• diverting
• jesting
• dabbling

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• earnest
• sober
• serious
• responsible
• dutiful
• solemn
• stern
• serious-minded
• somber
• grim
• stolid
• grave
• proper
• formal
• decorous
• sobersided
• priggish
• sedate
• staid
• stuffy
• starchy
• restrained
• no-nonsense
• inhibited
• guarded

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of sportive

In 2018, Brooke Eby, a sportive goofball with strawberry-blond hair, started to feel as though her left foot couldn’t keep up. —Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023

That was true even in extremely endangered ones such as the northern sportive lemur (Lepilemur septentrionalis) of which only 40 are known to exist, all within 12 square kilometers of Madagascar. —Byelizabeth Pennisi, science.org, 1 June 2023

Revel, too, in more sportive jaunts, such as volcano hiking, horseback-riding, zip-lining, rappelling down waterfalls, fishing and white-water river rafting. —Laura Manske, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2023

The rarest is the Sahafary sportive lemur (Lepilemur septentrionalis), found in a tiny area in northern Madagascar. —Anna Funk, Discover Magazine, 16 Nov. 2020