Interestingly

How to spell interestingly

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce interestingly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does interestingly mean?

1. adverbIn a way that arouses curiosity or attention, or used to flag a noteworthy detail.

Interestingly in a sentence

• The report was written interestingly enough to hold the board's attention.

• Interestingly, the cheaper supplier delivered faster than the premium one.

Where does interestingly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb is built on the noun and verb 'interest', which traces back to the Latin verb interesse, literally 'to be between' and so 'to make a difference' or 'to matter', formed from inter meaning 'between' and esse meaning 'to be'. In medieval Latin the impersonal form 'interest' meant 'it concerns' or 'it is of importance', and the word entered English in the fifteenth century first as a legal and financial term for a stake or a claim, the sense that still survives in money 'interest'. Over the following centuries the meaning softened from a hard stake to mental engagement, the feeling of caring about something, and from there came the participial adjective 'interesting' and finally the adverb 'interestingly'. The spelling trap is hidden in the middle: the second syllable is an unstressed schwa that many adults swallow in speech, so the central 'e' in inter-EST-ingly is often dropped or muddled when writing. Remembering the base word 'interest' keeps the vowels in order.

How the word is built

• interest (from Latin interesse: to be between, to matter)
• -ing (adjective-forming suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)