Strategically

How to spell strategically

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce strategically

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does strategically mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is carefully planned to achieve a particular long-term aim or advantage.

Strategically in a sentence

• The company strategically priced its product just below its main rival.

• She strategically scheduled the meeting before the budget deadline.

Where does strategically come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek strategos, which literally meant 'general' or 'army leader', formed from stratos 'army' and agein 'to lead'. From it the Greeks built strategia, the art or office of a general, that is, generalship. The idea passed into French as strategie and into English in the early 1800s as 'strategy', originally a strictly military term for the planning of campaigns before broadening to any careful long-term planning. The adjective 'strategic' and then the adverb 'strategically' were derived in English by stacking the familiar -ic, -al and -ly endings onto the root. The spelling trap lives in that quiet middle: the unstressed 'a' in 'strateg-a-' is easy to lose, and the ending is the standard -ically (as in 'basically' and 'logically'), not '-icly'.

How the word is built

• strateg- (from Greek strategos: general, military commander)
• -ic (forming an adjective)
• -al (adjective extension)
• -ly (adverb suffix)