Moderately

How to spell moderately

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce moderately

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does moderately mean?

1. adverbTo an average or limited degree; neither very much nor very little.

Moderately in a sentence

• The new restaurant is moderately priced, so a family dinner stays affordable.

• He is moderately fit, able to jog a few miles without much training.

Where does moderately come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin moderatus, the past participle of moderari, a verb meaning to regulate, to keep within bounds, or to restrain. That verb grew out of modus, meaning a measure or limit, the same root that gives us mode, model, and modest. English took moderate as an adjective in the late 1300s, carrying the sense of something kept within reasonable limits, and the adverb moderately followed naturally by adding the native suffix -ly. The idea of measured restraint runs all the way through: to be moderate is literally to stay within measure, neither too much nor too little. The tricky middle of the spelling, the unstressed -ate- that flattens to a schwa in speech, is the part writers most often slip on, even though it simply preserves the older adjective moderate intact.

How the word is built

• moder- (from Latin moderari: to control, restrain)
• -ate (adjective)
• -ly (adverb suffix)