Commercially

How to spell commercially

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce commercially

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does commercially mean?

1. adverbIn a way that relates to buying, selling, or making a profit.

Commercially in a sentence

• The film was praised by critics but did poorly commercially.

• The new drug is not yet available commercially in this country.

Where does commercially come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin noun merx, meaning 'goods' or 'merchandise', from which the Romans formed commercium for 'trade' or 'dealing in wares', built with the prefix com- ('together') and the same merc root. English took in the adjective 'commercial' through French in the early 1600s to describe matters of trade and buying and selling, then attached the native adverb ending -ly to make 'commercially'. The literal idea of people coming together to exchange goods survives in close relatives such as 'merchant', 'merchandise', 'market', and 'mercenary', all of which share that merc core. The spelling trap lives in the middle and end: the doubled m, the soft c that sounds like 'sh' before the -ial, and the full -ially cluster that adults frequently trim to a single l or misjudge. Keeping the four-part build in mind (com + merc + ial + ly) is the surest guard against dropping a letter.

How the word is built

• com- (with, together)
• merc (trade, from merx 'goods, wares')
• -ial (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)