Lately

How to spell lately

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lately

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lately mean?

1. adverbIn the recent past; not long ago.

Lately in a sentence

• Sales have been climbing steadily lately.

• Lately she has been arriving at the office before everyone else.

Where does lately come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends directly from Old English, where the adjective 'laet' meant 'slow' or 'late' and gave rise to the adverb 'laetlice', meaning 'slowly' or 'recently'. The native Germanic root behind it is shared with words like the Dutch 'laat' and the German 'lass', all carrying the sense of being delayed or sluggish. Over the centuries the older sense of 'slowly' faded, and by the late medieval period 'lately' had settled into its modern meaning of 'in the recent past'. The spelling is wholly regular: it is simply the familiar word 'late' with the everyday adverb ending '-ly' bolted on, and crucially the silent 'e' of 'late' is kept, which is the one small thing worth remembering. Its close cousin 'late' itself remains one of the most ordinary words in English.

How the word is built

• late (recently in time)
• -ly (adverb suffix)