Decisively

How to spell decisively

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce decisively

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does decisively mean?

1. adverbIn a way that settles an issue firmly and with clear, confident resolve.

Decisively in a sentence

• The committee acted decisively to approve the budget before the deadline.

• She answered decisively, leaving no room for further debate.

Where does decisively come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin verb decidere, which literally meant 'to cut off' or 'to cut away', formed from de- 'off' and caedere 'to cut'. From the idea of cutting through a tangle to settle a matter, the word came to mean reaching a firm conclusion, which is how Latin decidere gave us the sense of 'to decide'. The related Latin form decisio produced the English noun 'decision', and from the adjective 'decisive' English built the adverb 'decisively' by the seventeenth century. The buried root caedere also surfaces in words like 'incision', 'scissors', and 'concise', all of which carry that original notion of cutting. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the sound is an /s/, but it is spelled with an 's' (decis-), not a 'c', echoing 'decision' rather than 'decide'.

How the word is built

• de- (off, away)
• cis (cut, from caedere: to cut)
• -ive (tending to)
• -ly (adverb suffix)