Beautifully

How to spell beautifully

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce beautifully

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does beautifully mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is pleasing to the senses or done with great skill and grace.

Beautifully in a sentence

• The old hall was beautifully restored to its original condition.

• She sang beautifully at the wedding reception.

Where does beautifully come from?

Language of origin: French

The word traces back to the Latin bellus, meaning 'pretty' or 'fine', which gave rise to the Old French beauté, meaning 'beauty' or 'loveliness'. English borrowed the noun 'beauty' in the 1300s, then built the adjective 'beautiful' by adding the suffix -ful, literally 'full of beauty'. The adverb 'beautifully' followed naturally by tacking on the adverb-forming suffix -ly. The spelling trap lives in the seam between the parts: the word keeps the 'i' from 'beauti' (the form 'beauty' takes when a suffix is added), so the middle reads 'beauti-ful-ly' with a doubled 'l' at the join of -ful and -ly. Writers also stumble over the unusual 'eau' cluster inherited straight from French, a sequence that looks nothing like it sounds.

How the word is built

• beauti- (from beauty, via Old French beauté)
• -ful (full of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)