Internationally

How to spell internationally

15 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce internationally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does internationally mean?

1. adverbIn a way that involves or extends across two or more nations.

Internationally in a sentence

• The brand is recognised internationally and sells in over forty countries.

• Her research on coral reefs is respected internationally by marine biologists.

Where does internationally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin natio, meaning 'a people' or 'a race', which itself grew from nasci, the verb 'to be born', so a nation was originally a body of people born into the same stock. The prefix inter- comes from Latin and means 'between' or 'among', so 'international' literally describes what passes between nations. The adjective 'international' is famously a deliberate coinage: the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham introduced it in 1780, openly admitting he was inventing a new term to describe law operating between sovereign states. From there the adverb 'internationally' was formed by stacking the adjective suffix -al onto 'nation' and then the adverb suffix -ly on top of that. The chief spelling trap lives in that ending, because the adjective already finishes in -al, so adding -ly produces the doubled letter sequence -ally, which writers often reduce to a single l.

How the word is built

• inter- (between, among)
• nation (from Latin natio: a people, a nation)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)