Simultaneously

How to spell simultaneously

14 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce simultaneously

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does simultaneously mean?

1. adverbAt the same time as something else; happening together in the same moment.

Simultaneously in a sentence

• The two presentations were running simultaneously in adjacent meeting rooms.

• Both bank accounts were closed simultaneously to avoid any overlap in fees.

Where does simultaneously come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin adverb simul, which simply meant 'at the same time' or 'together'. Simul belonged to the same family as similis, meaning 'like' or 'similar', so the underlying idea is of things matching up or coinciding. Medieval Latin produced simultaneus, an adjective describing events happening together, probably shaped by analogy with words like instantaneus ('instantaneous'). English borrowed the adjective 'simultaneous' in the seventeenth century and then added the native -ly ending to form the adverb 'simultaneously'. A useful spelling anchor is to remember the buried simul- at the start, the same chunk you see in 'simulate' and 'simulation', which keeps writers from dropping the first 'l' or muddling the unstressed middle vowels.

How the word is built

• simul- (Latin: at the same time)
• -aneous (adjective suffix, after Latin 'instantaneous')
• -ly (adverb suffix)