Doubly

How to spell doubly

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce doubly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does doubly mean?

1. adverbTo twice the degree, or in two distinct ways at once.

Doubly in a sentence

• The late delivery made her doubly anxious about the deadline.

• Locking the back gate and the shed left the yard doubly secure.

Where does doubly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb is built directly on the English word double, which reached us through Old French doble from the Latin duplus, meaning 'twofold' or 'twice as much'. That Latin form combined duo, meaning 'two', with a root tied to plicare, meaning 'to fold', so the original picture was literally something folded over on itself. English had double in use by the 1200s, and the adverb doubly followed soon after to express 'in two ways' or 'to twice the degree'. The spelling trap is the join: double ends in a silent -e, and English drops that -e before the -ly ending, giving doubly rather than the wrongly guessed 'doublely'. The silent b, inherited from the Latin duplus through French, adds a second snare, since it is written but never sounded.

How the word is built

• doubl- (from double, twofold)
• -y (adverb suffix, with the silent -e of double dropped)