Federally

How to spell federally

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce federally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does federally mean?

1. adverbIn a way that relates to the central government of a federation, rather than to a state, province, or local body.

Federally in a sentence

• The new emissions rules are federally mandated for every state.

• The bank is federally regulated, so the same standards apply nationwide.

Where does federally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun foedus, with the stem foeder-, which meant a covenant, league, or solemn treaty between parties. From that root scholars in the seventeenth century coined the adjective 'federal' to describe a system held together by a binding agreement among separate states. The adverb 'federally' was then formed in the usual English way by adding -ly, so it literally describes something done 'in a federal manner' or 'by the central, union-wide authority'. The same foedus root sits quietly inside 'confederate' and 'fidelity', since the underlying idea is one of trust and a sworn bond. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle: the second e of 'feder' is a faint schwa, and the doubled l where 'federal' meets '-ly' is easy to drop or to mistake for a single l.

How the word is built

• feder- (from Latin foedus: league, compact, treaty)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)