Use this page to explore -ly adverbs formed from base words across parts of speech nouns (e.g., hour → hourly), adjectives (e.g., quick → quickly), and verbs (e.g., direct → directly). The suffix -ly typically turns the base into an adverb of manner, time, or frequency. Watch for small spelling shifts (like tragic → tragically) and note that not every -ly word is an adverb (friendly, lively are adjectives). Irregular adverbs that don’t use -ly (like well) aren’t included here.
Adjective Adverb abrupt abruptly absolute absolutely accidental accidentally active actively actual actually adamant adamantly additional additionally affectionate affectionately angry angrily annual annually anxious anxiously apparent apparently appreciative appreciatively apprehensive apprehensively appropriate appropriately approving approvingly approximate approximately apt aptly ardent ardently arduous arduously arguable arguably attentive attentively audible audibly awkward awkwardly bad badly beautiful beautifully bitter bitterly boastful boastfully bold boldly brave bravely brief briefly bright brightly brutal brutally busy busily calm calmly careful carefully careless carelessly casual casually cautious cautiously certain certainly cheap cheaply cheerful cheerfully clean cleanly clear clearly clever cleverly close closely comfortable comfortably complete completely conclusive conclusively conscious consciously constant constantly continual continually continuous continuously copious copiously correct correctly courteous courteously crooked crookedly cruel cruelly cunning cunningly curious curiously dangerous dangerously daring daringly dear dearly deep deeply definite definitely deliberate deliberately delightful delightfully dim dimly dirty dirtily double doubly dull dully eager eagerly easy easily economic economically efficient efficiently enjoyable enjoyably enormous enormously entire entirely essential essentially eternal eternally ethical ethically ethnic ethnically etymological etymologically euphemistic euphemistically evasive evasively even evenly eventual eventually evident evidently exorbitant exorbitantly extreme extremely faithful faithfully fastidious fastidiously fatal fatally fearful fearfully fierce fiercely final finally financial financially first firstly foolish foolishly forgetful forgetfully fortunate fortunately free freely frequent frequently friendly friendily frightful frightfully full fully general generally generous generously gentle gently gentleman gentlemanly genuine genuinely glad gladly graceful gracefully gradual gradually grim grimly grudging grudgingly gruelling gruellingly gruesome gruesomely half-yearly half-yearly haphazard haphazardly happy happily hard hardly harsh harshly hasty hastily hateful hatefully heavy heavily helpful helpfully helpless helplessly high highly holistic holistically honest honestly honourable honourably hopeful hopefully horrible horribly hourly hourly hungry hungrily hurried hurriedly hypothetical hypothetically hysterical hysterically immaculate immaculately immediate immediately impatient impatiently individual individually inescapable inescapably inestimable inestimably inevitable inevitably inexorable inexorably infallible infallibly infectious infectiously instant instantly instantaneous instantaneously instinctive instinctively jealous jealously joint jointly joyful joyfully justifiable justifiably keen keenly kind kindly knowing knowingly knowledgeable knowledgeably last lastly late lately lawful lawfully lazy lazily light lightly lone lonely loud loudly lucky luckily mad madly main mainly mannish mannishly magic magically mental mentally merciful mercifully mere merely merry merrily momentary momentarily monthly monthly narrow narrowly natural naturally near nearly neat neatly nebulous nebulously necessary necessarily needless needlessly nervous nervously new newly nice nicely nightly nightly noisy noisily obedient obediently occasional occasionally open openly oppressive oppressively optimistic optimistically oral orally outward outwardly painful painfully partial partially particular particularly passionate passionately patent patently patient patiently peaceful peacefully perfect perfectly permanent permanently personal personally pessimistic pessimistically physical physically pious piously playful playfully pleasant pleasantly polite politely poor poorly popular popularly possible possibly posthumous posthumously pretty prettily previous previously primary primarily private privately probable probably problematic problematically promiscuous promiscuously proper properly proud proudly punctual punctually pure purely puritanical puritanically purposeless purposelessly quick quickly quiet quietly rapid rapidly rare rarely rational rationally ready readily real really recent recently regular regularly ridiculous ridiculously rough roughly rude rudely sad sadly safe safely satisfactory satisfactorily savage savagely secret secretly seeming seemingly sentimental sentimentally separate separately serene serenely serial serially serious seriously severe severely shaky shakily shameful shamefully shameless shamelessly sheepish sheepishly shy shyly significant significantly silent silently simple simply sincere sincerely single-handed single-handedly skilful skillfully sleepy sleepily slight slightly slow slowly soft softly sole solely sound soundly special specially steadfast steadfastly steady steadily stealthy stealthily strange strangely strong strongly stupid stupidly subtle subtly successful successfully sudden suddenly sure surely surprising surprisingly sweet sweetly swift swiftly tactical tactically tactless tactlessly terrible terribly terrifying terrifyingly terse tersely thankful thankfully thorough thorougly thoughtful thoughtfully thoughtless thoughtlessly total totally tremendous tremendously tremulous tremulously TRUE truly trustful trustfully truthful truthfully unacceptable unacceptably unarguable unarguably understandable understandably undoubted undoubtedly unexpected unexpectedly untruthful untruthfully unusual unusually urbane urbanely urgent urgently useful usefully usual usually vast vastly verbal verbally veritable veritably weary wearily weekly weekly whole-hearted whole-heartedly wide widely wild wildly willing willingly wise wisely wrong wrongly yearly yearly youthful youthfully
Noun Adverb hour hourly day daily night nightly week weekly month monthly quarter quarterly year yearly half-year half-yearly fortnight fortnightly season seasonally time (leisure) leisurely year-end yearly
Verb Adverb know knowingly think unthinkingly decide decidedly admit admittedly allege allegedly suppose supposedly report reportedly purport purportedly mistake mistakenly amaze amazingly surprise surprisingly interest interestingly annoy annoyingly confuse confusingly disappoint disappointingly charm charmingly endear endearingly love lovingly joke jokingly laugh laughingly plead pleadingly search searchingly tell tellingly increase increasingly accord accordingly direct directly will willingly trust trustingly
