Curiously

How to spell curiously

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce curiously

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does curiously mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is strange, odd, or surprising.
2. adverbIn an inquisitive manner, showing a keen desire to know more.

Curiously in a sentence

• The office was curiously quiet for a Monday morning.

• The toddler peered curiously into the open suitcase.

• The invoice was curiously higher than the agreed quote.

• He glanced curiously at the unmarked package on the desk.

Where does curiously come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin curiosus, meaning 'careful', 'painstaking', or 'eager to know', which was built on cura, the Latin noun for 'care, concern, attention'. In its earliest Latin use the sense was close to 'taking great care', and only later did it pick up the flavour of being inquisitive and prying into things. English borrowed the adjective 'curious' in the 1300s by way of Old French curios, and for centuries it could mean both 'skilfully made with great care' and 'inquisitive'. The familiar modern senses, 'eager to learn' and 'strange or odd', grew out of that double life, and the adverb 'curiously' was formed in English simply by adding the suffix -ly. The same cura root still sits inside everyday relatives such as 'cure', 'curator', and 'accurate', and that shared 'cur' beginning is a useful anchor for remembering the spelling of the unstressed 'ious' middle.

How the word is built

• curi- (from Latin cura: care, concern)
• -ous (full of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)