Rapidly

How to spell rapidly

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce rapidly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rapidly mean?

1. adverbAt great speed; in a way that happens or progresses quickly.

Rapidly in a sentence

• The new product sold rapidly once the advert aired.

• Prices have been rising rapidly across the region.

Where does rapidly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the Latin rapidus, meaning 'swift' or 'rushing', which itself came from the verb rapere, 'to seize or carry off by force'. That violent sense survives in relatives like 'rapacious' and 'rapture', and the original idea was of a current so fast it could snatch things away, which is also why a stretch of fast river water is called a 'rapid'. English took the adjective 'rapid' from French and Latin in the early 1600s, and the adverb 'rapidly' was formed soon after by adding the ordinary native English suffix '-ly'. The spelling is mercifully regular: the base 'rapid' simply takes '-ly' with no doubling or dropping of letters. The only point worth noting is that the unstressed middle vowel is a faint schwa, so writers occasionally hesitate over whether it is spelled with an 'i'.

How the word is built

• rapid- (from Latin rapidus: swift, seizing)
• -ly (adverb suffix)