Furiously

How to spell furiously

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce furiously

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does furiously mean?

1. adverbIn a way that shows intense anger, or with frantic energy and speed.

Furiously in a sentence

• He scribbled furiously to finish the report before the deadline.

• The manager paced furiously after reading the complaint.

Where does furiously come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin noun furia, meaning 'rage' or 'frenzy', which itself came from the verb furere, 'to rage' or 'to be mad'. From furia the Romans formed the adjective furiosus, meaning 'full of rage' or 'frantic', and English took it up through Old French as 'furious' in the 1300s, later adding the native adverb ending -ly. The Furies of Roman mythology, the avenging spirits who hounded wrongdoers, sprang from the very same root and capture the word's original sense of uncontrolled wrath. Over time furiously broadened beyond pure anger to describe anything done with frantic energy or speed, such as writing or working at a frenzied pace. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle: the -ious cluster softens to a quick 'yus' in speech, so writers must remember the i before the ous and the doubled letters of the -ly ending bolted onto the full adjective.

How the word is built

• furi- (from Latin furia: rage, fury)
• -ous (full of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)