Comfortably

How to spell comfortably

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce comfortably

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does comfortably mean?

1. adverbIn a way that provides physical ease, relaxation, or freedom from worry or difficulty.

Comfortably in a sentence

• The new sofa let her sit comfortably for hours while she read.

• With savings in the bank, the couple could retire comfortably at sixty.

Where does comfortably come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Late Latin verb confortare, meaning 'to strengthen greatly', which was built from the intensive prefix com- and the adjective fortis, meaning 'strong'. So the earliest sense was about strengthening or fortifying someone, not about cushions and ease. English took it through Old French confort during the 1200s, when 'comfort' still meant encouragement, support, or consolation in the face of hardship. Only later did the meaning soften toward physical ease and pleasant relaxation, the sense we now feel most strongly. The adverb comfortably stacks the noun comfort with -able and -ly, and the spelling trap lives in the middle: the 'fort' syllable is barely pronounced in speech, so writers often drop the 'or' and the silent 't' run-up, and the ending is -ably rather than -ibly.

How the word is built

• com- (intensive, from Latin com-)
• fort (strong, from Latin fortis)
• -able (able to)
• -ly (adverb suffix)