Extraordinarily

How to spell extraordinarily

15 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce extraordinarily

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does extraordinarily mean?

1. adverbTo an unusual or remarkable degree; far beyond what is ordinary.

Extraordinarily in a sentence

• The new recruit was extraordinarily talented at solving complex problems.

• Property prices in that district have become extraordinarily expensive.

Where does extraordinarily come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This long word reaches back to the Latin extraordinarius, meaning 'outside the normal order of things', which was built from extra ('beyond' or 'outside') joined to ordo, the Latin word for 'order', 'rank' or 'arrangement'. In Roman usage extraordinarius described soldiers or measures that fell outside the regular establishment, so the literal sense was something kept apart from the ordinary roster. English took the adjective 'extraordinary' through Old French and Latin during the 1400s, and the adverb 'extraordinarily' was formed later in English by adding the familiar -ly ending to the -ary stem. The same ordo root sits inside everyday words such as 'order', 'ordinary' and 'coordinate', which is a handy reminder that the heart of this word is plain 'ordinary' with 'extra-' bolted on the front. The spelling trap lives in that buried sequence -dinarily, where the unstressed vowels blur and writers often lose count of how many syllables and letters there really are.

How the word is built

• extra- (beyond, outside)
• ordin (from ordo: order, rank)
• -ary (adjective suffix)
• -ily (adverb suffix)