Amazingly

How to spell amazingly

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce amazingly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does amazingly mean?

1. adverbTo a surprising or astonishing degree; in a way that causes wonder.

Amazingly in a sentence

• The repairs were finished amazingly quickly given the size of the job.

• Despite the long flight, she arrived amazingly calm and ready to work.

Where does amazingly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This adverb traces back to the verb 'amaze', which in turn comes from the Old English 'amasian', meaning to bewilder, confuse, or stupefy. The earliest sense was not delight at all but a kind of stunned confusion, as if struck senseless; the same root sits behind the noun 'maze', the bewildering network of paths. Over the late medieval and Tudor period the meaning softened from 'to dumbfound or paralyse with shock' toward the modern flavour of overwhelming wonder or astonishment. The adjective 'amazing' was formed by adding the participial ending, and the adverb 'amazingly' followed by tacking on '-ly', the standard English way of turning an adjective into an adverb. The spelling is usually safe once you remember it is simply 'amaze' with the silent final 'e' dropped before '-ing', then '-ly' added, which is why there is a single 'z' and no doubled letters.

How the word is built

• a- (intensive prefix)
• maze (root, to bewilder or confuse)
• -ing (adjective-forming participle)
• -ly (adverb suffix)