Mostly

How to spell mostly

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mostly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mostly mean?

1. adverbFor the greatest part; mainly or on the whole.

Mostly in a sentence

• The team works from home mostly, meeting in the office once a week.

• Her diet is mostly vegetables, with a little fish on weekends.

Where does mostly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from 'most' plus the adverb-forming ending '-ly', and both parts are thoroughly native English. 'Most' descends from the Old English mǣst, meaning 'greatest' or 'largest in amount', a superlative that sits at the top of the same family as 'more' and the older 'mickle' (meaning much). The ending '-ly' comes from the Old English '-lic', which originally meant something like 'having the body or form of', and over time it weakened into the all-purpose suffix that turns words into adverbs. The compound 'mostly', meaning 'for the greatest part' or 'mainly', is a comparatively late formation, appearing in writing around the early 1600s. Because both halves are plain, regular pieces, the spelling holds no real surprises: it is simply 'most' with '-ly' added, keeping the silent middle exactly as in 'most'.

How the word is built

• most (from Old English mǣst: greatest, largest in number)
• -ly (adverb suffix, from -lic)