Eventually

How to spell eventually

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce eventually

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does eventually mean?

1. adverbIn the end, after a period of time or a series of events.

Eventually in a sentence

• After months of saving, they eventually bought the house.

• The delayed train eventually arrived just before midnight.

Where does eventually come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin noun eventus, meaning 'an outcome' or 'a result', which was itself formed from the verb evenire, 'to come out' or 'to happen', combining e- (out) with venire (to come). From eventus English built the noun 'event' in the sixteenth century, then layered on the adjective 'eventual' to describe something happening as a final result or consequence. The adverb 'eventually', meaning 'in the end' or 'ultimately', appears from the early eighteenth century. The spelling trap lives in the middle and the tail: the - event- core is heard clearly, but the unstressed -ual- can collapse in speech, and the ending stacks -al plus -ly into -ally, where writers are tempted to drop a letter. Keeping the same venire root in mind links it to relatives like 'venue', 'convene', and 'intervene'.

How the word is built

• event (from Latin eventus: outcome, occurrence)
• -ual (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)