Blindly

How to spell blindly

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce blindly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does blindly mean?

1. adverbWithout thought, judgement, or proper consideration; or without being able to see.

Blindly in a sentence

• The new staff were told never to blindly accept a supplier's first quote.

• Investors should not blindly follow tips they read on social media.

Where does blindly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word blindly is built from the Old English adjective 'blind', which meant 'unable to see' and reaches back to a Proto-Germanic root 'blindaz', shared with Dutch 'blind' and German 'blind'. Some scholars connect this root to an older sense of 'becoming dark' or 'making cloudy', which is why related words once carried the idea of confusion or being obscured rather than simply lacking sight. The adverb-forming suffix '-ly' comes from the Old English '-lice', meaning 'in the manner of', so blindly literally meant 'in the manner of one who cannot see'. From the medieval period onward the word broadened from physical sightlessness to the figurative sense of acting without thought, judgement, or evidence. That figurative use, doing something with no reasoning behind it, is now the most common meaning, and the spelling stays regular because the silent base 'blind' simply takes '-ly' with no change.

How the word is built

• blind (Old English blind: unable to see)
• -ly (adverb suffix)