Pollyanna 1 of 2

Pollyanna

2 of 2

noun

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of Pollyanna
Noun
The documentary significantly adds to the origin story, tracing Reubens’ early days and infatuation with TV kids’ shows and Disney movies — Pollyanna was a favorite — and fleshing out the family’s move to Florida. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 24 Jan. 2025 But isn’t the cynical explanation also the Pollyanna one? Maya Singer, Vogue, 8 Jan. 2025 Sunshine Cleaning gave Adams’s Pollyanna era a slight edge. Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 6 Dec. 2024 The film also features the artist Pollyanna Johnson and Samantha McCoach, the founder of the brand Le Kilt. Joelle Diderich, WWD, 3 Dec. 2024 The politics of Pollyanna, brought to you by the things-have-never-been-better crowd. Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 24 Oct. 2024 Pope and Sarah go into catacombs beneath an old church in search of the treasure, but are forced to hide among the rats when Lightner (Rigo Sanchez) and his boss Dalia (Pollyanna McIntosh) show up and grab a mysterious scroll that is most likely a map. Christy Piña, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Oct. 2024 Informed hope is not a Pollyanna attitude, but balancing the realities of the situation with the positive things people are doing. Natalie Eilbert, Journal Sentinel, 4 Apr. 2024 Opinion: As more workers exit downtown, Louisville Mayor Greenberg needs to deal with realty and chuck his Pollyanna perspective, our Joe Gerth says in his latest column. Ray Padilla, The Courier-Journal, 11 Feb. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for Pollyanna
Adjective
  • Last week, Trump struck an optimistic note about Saudi-Israel normalization, claiming Riyadh wasn’t demanding an independent Palestinian state in return.
    Abbas Al Lawati, CNN, 16 Feb. 2025
  • While these stocks struggled, Wall Street is optimistic.
    Alex Harring, CNBC, 14 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • How will the last cockeyed optimist in popular culture deal with such desolation?
    Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 7 Feb. 2025
  • Shelton is something of an eternal optimist, though.
    Matthew Futterman, The Athletic, 14 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • With more than a touch of the ever-popular Scandi Noir genre, the team are now hopeful about the potential for international sales as All3Media International gets ready to shop the four-parter at the London TV Screenings.
    Max Goldbart, Deadline, 11 Feb. 2025
  • Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
    Henry Gass, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • He’s got the twinkly eye and the sly, gregarious spiritual ease of a Micawber or a Cheeryble.
    Sara Holdren, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2024
  • The smallest of the Micawber brood glides away in his baby carriage, because the bailiff is dragging the hallway carpet out from under the front door.
    Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic, 16 Sep. 2020
Noun
  • Poppy is an idealist who meets a situation and deals with it and acts on it and who is able to.
    Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 21 Jan. 2025
  • That would be ideal — and MLK was, if anything, an idealist, a dreamer.
    Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 19 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • The film’s ghostly images are at once flattened and alive, hovering in visual purgatory as scenes begin to feel not only like fever dreams, but out-of-body observations of the dreamers themselves.
    Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 14 Feb. 2025
  • Soon the dreamers’ voices, their heady dreamscapes and potent emotions, were accompanying my days.
    Mireille Juchau, The Dial, 4 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Some perfumes smell pink and rosy, others are amber-hued and spicy, and some smell fresh and verdant—like a whiff of pale green.
    Jenny Berg, Allure, 8 Feb. 2025
  • January’s nonfarm payrolls data reported Friday showed a rosy but not exceptional picture of the labor market.
    Sarah Min, CNBC, 7 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Cancer: Henry Roth from 50 First Dates As a hopeless romantic with a nurturing heart, Henry Roth embodies the personality traits of a Cancer.
    Athena Sobhan, People.com, 11 Feb. 2025
  • This attempt to coax a conventional romantic through line out of the madness doesn’t really work, partly because Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan have otherwise done a fine job of making clear how unconventional this whole situation was.
    Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024

Thesaurus Entries Near Pollyanna

Cite this Entry

“Pollyanna.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/Pollyanna. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!