Immensely

How to spell immensely

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce immensely

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does immensely mean?

1. adverbTo a very great degree; enormously.

Immensely in a sentence

• The new commute has made the staff immensely happier.

• Investors were immensely relieved when the figures finally improved.

Where does immensely come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin immensus, which literally meant 'unmeasured' or 'immeasurable', built from the negative prefix in- 'not' and mensus, the past participle of the verb metiri 'to measure'. The idea, then, was of something so vast that it could not be measured at all. English took the adjective 'immense' from Latin by way of Old French during the 1400s, and the adverb 'immensely' was later formed on English soil by adding the ordinary -ly ending. The same mens root for measuring also lurks inside words like 'dimension' and 'measure' itself, which is a useful reminder that the middle of the word is spelled m-e-n-s, not m-e-a-n-s. Over time the strict sense of 'beyond measure' softened into the everyday meaning 'to a very great degree'.

How the word is built

• im- (not)
• mens (measured, from Latin metiri 'to measure')
• -e
• -ly (adverb suffix)