کلی

What it means

کلی (koli) has two overlapping uses in Persian. As a colloquial intensifier, it means a lot, tons, or a great deal, and it functions as an adverb before adjectives or a quantifier before nouns: کلی خوشحال شدم (koli khoshhâl shodam) means I was really happy, and کلی وقت (koli vaght) means tons of time. As a more neutral adjective, کلی means wholesale, bulk, or total, as in جنس کلی (jens-e koli), meaning bulk goods, contrasted with جزئی (joz’i), meaning retail or partial. The word comes from Arabic كُلّي (kulli), meaning total or universal, derived from the root ک-ل-ل (k-l-l). In colloquial spoken Persian the intensifier use is far more common and natural than the wholesale meaning.

How to use it

• کلی وقت داریم (koli vaght dârim) “We have tons of time.”
• کلی خوشحال شدم (koli khoshhâl shodam) “I was really happy.”
• کلی کار دارم (koli kâr dâram) “I have a huge amount of work.”
• جنس کلی میفروشه (jens-e koli miforushe) “He sells goods wholesale.”

Cultural note

Colloquial Persian loves intensity, and کلی sits alongside خیلی (kheyli, very), زیاد (ziâd, a lot), and عالی (âli, great) as a workhorse intensifier in everyday Tehran speech. Its appeal is partly its brevity: a single syllable that can front any adjective or noun to amplify it. In informal texting and social media, کلی appears frequently, often stacked with other intensifiers: کلی زیاد (koli ziâd, an awful lot) is common in casual writing.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab