Strangely

How to spell strangely

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce strangely

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does strangely mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is odd, unfamiliar, or hard to explain.

Strangely in a sentence

• The office felt strangely quiet after the holiday rush ended.

• He behaved strangely during the meeting, fidgeting and avoiding every question.

Where does strangely come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin word extraneus, which literally meant 'external' or 'belonging to the outside', itself built on extra, meaning 'outside'. In Old French that root became estrange, an adjective for something foreign, unfamiliar, or out of the ordinary, and Middle English borrowed it during the 1200s as 'strange'. The native English adverb-forming suffix -ly was then attached to give 'strangely', meaning in an odd or unfamiliar manner. The same extraneus root still surfaces in the modern words 'extraneous' and 'stranger', all of them carrying the idea of something coming from outside. The single tricky point in the spelling is that the silent -e of 'strange' is kept before -ly, giving the -gely cluster rather than dropping the e.

How the word is built

• strange (from Latin extraneus: external, foreign)
• -ly (adverb suffix)