Informally

How to spell informally

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce informally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does informally mean?

1. adverbIn a casual, relaxed, or unofficial manner, without formal procedure or ceremony.

Informally in a sentence

• The manager spoke to the team informally over coffee before the official meeting.

• They agreed informally to share the costs, though nothing was put in writing.

Where does informally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin forma, meaning 'shape', 'form', or 'manner', from which Latin built informalis to describe something lacking a fixed shape or arrangement. English took the adjective 'informal' in the 1500s, originally meaning 'irregular' or 'not according to set rules', and the modern sense of 'casual' or 'unofficial' grew naturally from that idea of being free from rigid form. The adverb 'informally' was then formed in the usual English way by attaching the suffix -ly, which itself descends from the Old English -lice, meaning 'in the manner of'. The spelling trap lives in the seam where the parts join: the base 'formal' already ends in -al, so the adverb stacks -al and -ly together to give the double l of -ally, a pattern that catches many writers who expect just -ly. The same forma root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'uniform', 'reform', and 'format', all of which carry that core sense of shape or arrangement.

How the word is built

• in- (not)
• form (shape/manner)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)