Lightly

How to spell lightly

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lightly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lightly mean?

1. adverbIn a gentle, delicate, or slight manner; with little weight, force, or seriousness.

Lightly in a sentence

• She tapped the screen lightly to wake the phone.

• Season the soup lightly so the broth stays subtle.

Where does lightly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the native Old English adjective leoht, which carried two related senses: 'not heavy' and 'bright, full of light'. The adverb form was made by adding the everyday suffix -lice, the ancestor of the modern -ly that turns adjectives into adverbs of manner. Because leoht traces back to a Germanic root meaning 'easy to lift', the word naturally extended to mean gently, softly, or without much weight or force. By Middle English the spelling had settled toward 'light', and adding -ly gave 'lightly' in the familiar sense of doing something delicately or without seriousness. The silent gh, once pronounced as a throaty sound, is a fossil of that older Germanic pronunciation and is now simply a spelling habit to remember.

How the word is built

• light (from Old English leoht: not heavy, or bright)
• -ly (adverb suffix)