Carefully

How to spell carefully

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce carefully

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does carefully mean?

1. adverbIn a way that shows close attention, caution, or thoroughness to avoid mistakes or harm.

Carefully in a sentence

• She carefully checked each figure before submitting the budget.

• The movers wrapped the antique mirror carefully in thick padding.

Where does carefully come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English noun 'care', which descends from the Old English 'caru' or 'cearu', meaning 'sorrow, anxiety, grief'. That heavy emotional sense gradually softened over the centuries into the modern idea of attentive concern and watchfulness. The suffix '-ful' was added to mean 'full of', producing 'careful' (literally 'full of care'), and the adverb-forming '-ly', from Old English '-lice', turned the adjective into 'carefully'. The spelling trap lives at the join: 'careful' keeps only one 'l' because '-ful' is the reduced form of 'full', and then a single '-ly' is added, giving '-fully' with exactly two l's, never one and never three. The same family produces 'careless', 'caring', and 'uncaring', all carrying that ancient root of mindful attention.

How the word is built

• care (caution, attention)
• -ful (full of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)