Purposely
adverbOn purpose; in a deliberate and intentional way.
How to spell purposely
9 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce purposely
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does purposely mean?
- adverbOn purpose; in a deliberate and intentional way.
Purposely in a sentence
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He purposely left the receipt on the counter so she would see the total.
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The report omitted the figures purposely to avoid embarrassing the board.
Where does purposely come from?
Language of origin: French
This adverb is built on the noun 'purpose', which English took from Old French 'porpos', meaning an aim or intention. That French word grew out of the verb 'porposer', a blend influenced by the Latin 'proponere', literally 'to put forward', from 'pro' meaning 'forward' and 'ponere' meaning 'to place'. The idea of placing something in front of oneself as a goal gave 'purpose' its sense of a deliberate aim. By the late 1400s English speakers were attaching the native adverb-forming suffix '-ly' to produce 'purposely', meaning 'on purpose' or 'deliberately'. The spelling trap is the quiet middle: the second vowel is an unstressed schwa, so writers must remember the 'o' in 'purpose' survives unchanged before the '-ly'.
How the word is built
- purpose (intention, aim)
- -ly (adverb suffix)
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