Evenly

How to spell evenly

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce evenly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does evenly mean?

1. adverbIn a balanced, equal, or regular way, with no part greater or different from another.

Evenly in a sentence

• Spread the butter evenly across the toast.

• The prize money was divided evenly among the four winners.

Where does evenly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English adjective efen, which meant 'level, flat, or equal', the same root that gives us the modern word 'even'. The Germanic ancestors of efen carried the sense of two things being matched or balanced, with no part standing higher than another. By adding the common adverb-forming suffix -ly (itself from Old English -lice, meaning 'in the manner of'), English produced a word describing actions done in a level, equal, or balanced way. The adjective and adverb developed together over many centuries, and the spelling stayed close to the original because 'even' was always written with that distinctive medial v. The small trap for adult writers is simply that the base 'even' keeps its final e before the suffix, giving even-ly rather than any dropped or doubled letter.

How the word is built

• even (from Old English efen: level, equal)
• -ly (adverb suffix)