Bravely

How to spell bravely

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bravely

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bravely mean?

1. adverbIn a way that shows courage in the face of danger, pain, or difficulty.

Bravely in a sentence

• The firefighters acted bravely to reach the trapped family.

• She bravely admitted her mistake to the whole board.

Where does bravely come from?

Language of origin: French

The base word 'brave' arrived in English in the late 1400s from the French brave, meaning 'bold' or 'splendid', which French had in turn taken from the Italian bravo. The deeper roots are tangled: many scholars trace it back to the Latin barbarus, meaning 'wild' or 'savage' (the same source as 'barbarian'), while others point to the Latin pravus, meaning 'crooked' or 'depraved', so the trail is not entirely settled. Whatever its precise parent, the sense softened over time from 'wild and untamed' to the admiring modern meaning of 'showing courage'. The adverb 'bravely' is simply 'brave' with the familiar English ending -ly, which turns an adjective into a word describing how an action is done. Because the adjective ends in a silent 'e', the spelling keeps that 'e' before adding -ly, giving the smooth 'brave' plus 'ly' that trips up writers who expect the 'e' to drop.

How the word is built

• brave (from Italian/French bravo: bold, courageous)
• -ly (adverb suffix)