Defiantly

How to spell defiantly

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce defiantly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does defiantly mean?

1. adverbIn a manner that openly and boldly resists or challenges authority, rules, or expectations.

Defiantly in a sentence

• The striking workers defiantly refused to leave the factory floor.

• She folded her arms and defiantly stared at the manager.

Where does defiantly come from?

Language of origin: French

This adverb is built on the adjective 'defiant', which traces back through Old French to the verb 'defy'. The Old French verb was 'desfier', meaning to renounce one's faith or allegiance, and it grew out of Latin elements: 'dis-', expressing reversal or undoing, joined to 'fidus', meaning faithful or trusting (the same root that gives us 'fidelity' and 'confide'). So at its core, to defy someone literally meant to break trust with them, to throw off the bond of loyalty, before it narrowed to the modern sense of openly resisting or challenging authority. 'Defiant' appeared in English in the 1800s, and adding the ordinary adverb ending '-ly' produced 'defiantly', meaning in a manner that boldly resists. The shared 'fi' from 'fidus' is worth fixing in memory, because the genuine trap here is not the spelling of 'defiantly' itself but its frequent confusion with the unrelated word 'definitely', which has a quite different look once you slow down and sound it out.

How the word is built

• de- (from dis-: away, undoing)
• fi (from fidus: faithful, trusting)
• -ant (adjective: doing)
• -ly (adverb)