Stately

How to spell stately

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce stately

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does stately mean?

1. adjectiveDignified, grand, and impressive in appearance or manner.

Stately in a sentence

• The manor house had a stately entrance lined with marble columns.

• She crossed the room with a slow, stately walk that commanded attention.

Where does stately come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from the noun 'state' plus the adjective ending '-ly', which means 'having the quality of'. The noun 'state' came into English in the 1200s through Old French 'estat', which descended from the Latin 'status', meaning 'condition' or 'standing', a word formed on 'stare', 'to stand'. Among its many senses, 'state' came to carry the idea of high rank, ceremony, and grandeur, as in a king holding court 'in state'. By the late 1300s English speakers had added '-ly' to produce 'stately', describing something marked by that dignity and impressive bearing. The spelling is straightforward once you see that it is simply 'state' with the silent final 'e' kept before '-ly', so the trap is resisting the urge to drop that 'e'.

How the word is built

• state (rank, grandeur, from Latin status)
• -ly (adjective suffix meaning 'having the quality of')