Newly

How to spell newly

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce newly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does newly mean?

1. adverbRecently; only a short time ago.

Newly in a sentence

• The newly appointed manager spent her first week meeting the staff.

• They painted every room in their newly purchased house.

Where does newly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, built from the Old English adjective 'niwe', meaning 'fresh, recent, or not existing before', combined with the adverb-forming ending '-lice', which became the modern '-ly'. The root 'niwe' traces back to a shared Germanic ancestor, which is why German still has 'neu' and Dutch has 'nieuw' for the same idea. The adverb has been in continuous use since the earliest English writing, long before the Norman Conquest, always carrying the sense of something having happened or come about a short time ago. Because the spelling simply joins 'new' to '-ly', the only real trap is remembering that no letter is dropped or added at the join: it is 'new' plus 'ly', not 'newley' or 'newily'. The same predictable pattern appears in relatives such as 'lately' and 'freshly'.

How the word is built

• new (recent, not existing before)
• -ly (adverb suffix)