Implicitly

How to spell implicitly

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce implicitly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does implicitly mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is suggested or understood without being directly stated.
2. adverbCompletely and without any doubt or question.

Implicitly in a sentence

• The contract implicitly assumes that both parties will act in good faith.

• The team trusted their manager implicitly during the crisis.

• Her silence implicitly approved the new schedule.

• She followed the surgeon's instructions implicitly before the operation.

Where does implicitly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb implicare, which literally meant 'to fold in' or 'to entangle', built from in- meaning 'in' and plicare meaning 'to fold'. The past participle implicitus gave a sense of something folded together and therefore wrapped up inside, not laid out openly. English borrowed the adjective 'implicit' in the late 1500s to describe a meaning contained within something yet not directly stated, and the adverb 'implicitly' followed naturally with the standard -ly ending. The same plicare root quietly folds its way into a surprising family of relatives, including 'complicate', 'reply', 'duplicate' and 'plywood', all of which share the idea of folding or layering. Knowing that the core is plic (fold) helps with the spelling: there is a single 'c' before the -it, and the word is built on 'implicit', not on any double-letter pattern.

How the word is built

• im- (in, variant of in-)
• plic (root from Latin plicare: to fold)
• -it (participle stem)
• -ly (adverb suffix)