Generally

How to spell generally

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce generally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does generally mean?

1. adverbIn most cases or for the most part; usually.

Generally in a sentence

• The office is generally quiet on Friday afternoons.

• Prices generally rise during the holiday season.

Where does generally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin noun genus, meaning a 'kind', 'class', or 'race', from which the adjective generalis was formed to mean 'relating to a whole class' rather than to a single thing. English took the adjective 'general' through Old French in the 1300s, and the adverb 'generally' developed soon after by adding the native English ending '-ly'. From the start it carried the sense of something true 'in the main' or 'for the most part', covering a class as a whole even if exceptions exist. The same genus root quietly survives in a wide family of English words such as 'genus', 'genre', 'generate', and 'generous'. The spelling trap is the middle of the word: the unstressed schwa in 'gener-AL-ly' hides the double 'l' formed when '-al' meets '-ly', so writers often drop one 'l'.

How the word is built

• gener- (from genus: kind, class, race)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)