Scientifically

How to spell scientifically

14 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce scientifically

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does scientifically mean?

1. adverbIn a way that uses the methods, principles, or systematic rigour of science.

Scientifically in a sentence

• The new drug was tested scientifically before it reached the market.

• She approached the problem scientifically rather than relying on guesswork.

Where does scientifically come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word reaches back to the Latin verb scire, meaning 'to know', the same root that gives us 'science' and 'conscience'. From scire came scientia, 'knowledge', and the adjective scientificus was later coined in late and medieval Latin to mean 'producing knowledge', combining scient- (knowing) with the -ficus element from facere, 'to make'. English took 'scientific' through French in the late 1500s, originally to describe anything that demonstrated or yielded knowledge, only narrowing to the modern sense of systematic, evidence-based method over the following centuries. The adverb 'scientifically' simply stacks the everyday English suffixes -al and -ly onto that adjective. The spelling trap lives in that long unstressed tail: the silent 'c' in the 'sci-' beginning and the run of -ifically endings, where writers often lose track of how many letters separate the stress from the final -ly.

How the word is built

• sci- (from Latin scire: to know)
• -ent (present participle)
• -ific (from facere: to make)
• -al (adjective)
• -ly (adverb)