English Explanatory Dictionary

-ly

English dictionary entry

Meanings

suffix
  1. Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "behaving like, or having a nature typical of what is denoted by the noun" Similar in meaning to -like but most often paired with animate nouns.
  2. Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "appearing like, resembling, or having the likeness of what is denoted by the noun".
  3. Used to form adjectives from nouns specifying time intervals, the adjectives having the sense of "occurring at such intervals".
suffix
  1. Used to form adverbs from adjectives and nouns.
  2. Used to form company or brand names.

Pronunciation

/li/ en-us--ly.ogg [liː] [lɪ] [li] [ɫiː]

Word forms

-ly more -ly -lier most -ly -liest

Etymology

From Middle English -ly, -li, -lik, -lich, -like, from Old English -līċ, from Proto-West Germanic *-līk, from Proto-Germanic *-līkaz (“having the body or form of”), from *līką (“body”) (whence lich). In form, probably influenced by Old Norse -ligr (“-ly”) (Norwegian Bokmål -lig, Faroese -ligur, Icelandic -legur). Cognate with Dutch -lijk, German -lich, Danish -lig and Swedish -lig. Doublet of -like, more at like.

Synonyms

-ish -like -y quasi- para- -form -iform -esque -some -ous -ass -oid

Derived words

bloomly priestly beastly friendly manly bimonthly biweekly daily fortnightly hourly monthly weekly yearly -ally

Translations

Azerbaijani: -lik Danish: -lig Dutch: -lijks German: -lich Hungarian: -i Northern Kurdish: -ane Polish: co- Russian: еже- Swedish: -lig Turkish: -lik Ukrainian: що- -ний Ainu: no Aragonese: -mén Armenian: -բար Armenian: -որեն Asturian: -mente Azerbaijani: -cə Basque: -eki Burmese: စွာ Catalan: -ment Chinese Mandarin: 地 Czech: -ě Dutch: no change in form) Dutch: -erwijs Dutch: -lijk Dutch: -jes Dutch: genoeg Esperanto: -e Estonian: -lt Faroese: -liga Finnish: -sti French: -ment Galician: -mente Georgian: -ად Georgian: -დ Georgian: -ურად Georgian: -ულად German: -erweise German: -lich Greek: -α Greek: -ως Hebrew: ב־ Hungarian: -an Hungarian: -en Hungarian: -lag Hungarian: -leg Hungarian: -l Hungarian: -ul Hungarian: -ül Icelandic: -lega Ido: -e Igbo: na Italian: -mente Japanese: ...く Japanese: ...に Latin: -ē Latin: -iter Latvian: -i Lithuanian: -i Macedonian: -о Middle English: -ly Mongolian: -хан Navajo: -go Neapolitan: -mente Norman: -ment Occitan: -ment Ojibwe: -a Old English: -e Old English: -līċe Persian: ـانه Persian: ـیها
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