Professionally

How to spell professionally

14 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce professionally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does professionally mean?

1. adverbIn a way that relates to or befits a paid occupation, or to the competent, polished standard expected of an expert.

Professionally in a sentence

• The report was written professionally and needed almost no editing.

• She has trained professionally as an accountant for over a decade.

Where does professionally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb profiteri, meaning 'to declare openly' or 'to announce publicly', formed from pro- (forth, before others) and fateri (to confess or acknowledge). From its past participle came professio, the act of making a public declaration, and in medieval use this came to mean the vows openly declared by someone entering a religious order. English borrowed 'profession' through Old French during the 1300s, and the sense broadened from a sacred avowal to any occupation that one publicly claims and is trained in, such as law or medicine. The adjective 'professional' and finally the adverb 'professionally' grew out of this, carrying the idea of doing something to the polished standard of a paid expert. The buried fess root, the same one inside 'confess' and 'profess', explains the single 's' there, while the doubling to 'ss' in 'profession' is what trips writers, who must then stack on the long -ionally tail.

How the word is built

• pro- (forth, publicly)
• fess (from Latin fateri, to declare or confess)
• -ion (noun)
• -al (adjective)
• -ly (adverb)