Madly

How to spell madly

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce madly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does madly mean?

1. adverbIn a wild, frantic, or extremely intense manner.

Madly in a sentence

• The children waved madly as the train pulled away.

• He was madly in love with his new colleague.

Where does madly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word 'mad' comes from the Old English gemǣded, a past participle meaning 'driven out of one's mind' or 'made insane', which traces back to a Germanic root linked to the idea of being maimed or spoiled. Over the centuries the word broadened from strict insanity to cover wild anger, reckless behaviour, and intense enthusiasm. The adverb 'madly' was formed in the usual English way by adding the suffix -ly, which itself derives from the Old English -lice meaning 'in the manner of'. By the late medieval period 'madly' was used to describe acting in a frantic or uncontrolled way, and the romantic sense of being 'madly in love' grew naturally from the idea of overwhelming, irrational passion. The spelling is reliably regular: keep the single 'd' of 'mad' and simply attach '-ly', with no doubling and no silent letters to trip over.

How the word is built

• mad (from Old English gemǣd: out of one's mind)
• -ly (adverb suffix)