Routinely

How to spell routinely

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce routinely

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does routinely mean?

1. adverbAs a regular or customary practice; on a habitual basis.

Routinely in a sentence

• The technicians routinely inspect every machine before the morning shift.

• She routinely backs up her files at the end of each working day.

Where does routinely come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows from the noun 'routine', which English took directly from French in the late seventeenth century. The French routine was formed from route, meaning 'a way' or 'a road', which itself traces back to the Latin phrase via rupta, literally 'a broken way', that is, a path beaten or broken through the land. So a 'routine' originally carried the sense of a well worn track, a course one follows habitually, and from there it came to mean a regular, customary way of doing things. The adverb 'routinely' was built on top by adding the everyday English suffix -ly, and it simply means 'as a matter of routine' or 'regularly'. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: the silent 'e' of 'routine' is kept intact before -ly, and the 'ou' spells the long 'oo' sound, a tidy reminder that the word still hides the French 'route' inside it.

How the word is built

• routine (from French routine: a customary course of action, from route 'a way')
• -ly (adverb suffix)