Duly

How to spell duly

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce duly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does duly mean?

1. adverbIn the correct, expected, or required manner, and at the proper time.

Duly in a sentence

• The contract was duly signed by both directors.

• All the invoices were duly recorded in the ledger.

Where does duly come from?

Language of origin: French

Duly is the adverb formed from the adjective 'due', so its story begins with the Old French word 'deu', the past participle of 'devoir', meaning 'to owe'. That French verb came in turn from the Latin 'debere', literally 'to owe' or 'to be bound to', the same root that gives us 'debt' and 'debit'. English took 'due' in the 1300s with the sense of something owed or rightly required, and by adding the common adverb ending '-ly' speakers produced 'duly', meaning 'in the way that is owed or proper'. The spelling trap sits exactly at the join: because 'due' ends in a silent 'e', writers expect to keep it ('duely'), but the standard form drops the 'e' to give 'duly', mirroring the way 'true' becomes 'truly'.

How the word is built

• due (owed, proper)
• -ly (adverb suffix, with the silent 'e' of 'due' dropped)