Normally

How to spell normally

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce normally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does normally mean?

1. adverbIn the usual, expected, or ordinary way; under typical circumstances.

Normally in a sentence

• The office normally closes at six on weekdays.

• She normally takes the early train into the city.

Where does normally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin noun norma, which literally named a carpenter's square, the L-shaped tool used to check that an angle was true. Because that tool set the standard for what was correct, norma came to mean a rule, a pattern, or a model to follow. From it Latin built normalis, meaning made according to the square and so 'conforming to a rule', and English borrowed 'normal' in the seventeenth century, at first in the geometric sense of a right angle before settling into the familiar meaning of 'usual' or 'standard'. The adverb 'normally' simply adds the regular -ly ending, and the spelling trap lives at that join: the base 'normal' already ends in -al, so the adverb keeps both the l of the stem and the l of -ly, giving the doubled 'll'. The same norma root still underlies 'enormous' (literally 'out of the norm') and 'abnormal'.

How the word is built

• norm (from Latin norma: a rule or standard)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)