Importantly

How to spell importantly

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce importantly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does importantly mean?

1. adverbIn a way that carries significance; used to mark a point as especially worth noting.

Importantly in a sentence

• The report was thorough and, more importantly, completely accurate.

• The design was clever and, more importantly, cheap to build.

Where does importantly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb importare, which literally meant 'to carry in' or 'to bring in', formed from in- 'into' and portare 'to carry'. In Medieval Latin the sense drifted from physically bringing something in to a thing 'bearing weight' or 'mattering', and from that came the adjective important, meaning 'carrying significance'. English took 'important' from Old French in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the adverb 'importantly' was built later on native ground by adding the familiar -ly ending. The same portare root that means 'to carry' still lurks inside everyday words like 'transport', 'porter' and 'export'. For the speller, the trap is the soft middle: it is import + ANT + ly, with the unstressed -ant easily heard as the more common -ent.

How the word is built

• import (from Latin importare: to carry in, to matter)
• -ant (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)