Externally

How to spell externally

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce externally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does externally mean?

1. adverbOn, from, or relating to the outside of something.

Externally in a sentence

• The casing looks fine externally, but the wiring inside has failed.

• The report was reviewed externally by an independent auditor.

Where does externally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin externus, meaning 'outward' or 'belonging to the outside', which itself grew from exter (also exterus), 'on the outside', a form built on the preposition ex, meaning 'out of'. In the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries English took the adjective into use as 'external', describing anything situated or acting on the outer surface. The adverb 'externally' followed naturally by stacking the adverb-forming suffix -ly onto that adjective, so the structure is extern + al + ly. The same ex root surfaces in everyday relatives such as 'exterior' and 'exit', all carrying the sense of moving or facing outward. The spelling trap lives at the seam where the adjective ending -al meets the adverb ending -ly, producing the double l of -ally that writers so often reduce to a single l.

How the word is built

• extern- (from Latin externus: outward, outer)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)