Surely

How to spell surely

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce surely

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does surely mean?

1. adverbUsed to express confidence that something is true or to assert that it must be so.
2. adverbIn a confident, firm, or unhesitating way.

Surely in a sentence

• There must surely be a simpler way to file these expenses.

• She climbed slowly but surely toward the summit.

• If the train left on time, it will surely arrive by noon.

• The apprentice now handles the tools firmly and surely.

Where does surely come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from the adjective 'sure' plus the common adverb ending '-ly'. 'Sure' itself came into English in the 1300s through Old French 'sur' (earlier 'seur'), which traced back to the Latin 'securus', meaning 'free from care' or 'safe', formed from 'se-' (without) and 'cura' (care or worry). The same Latin root sits inside the more formal English word 'secure', so 'sure' and 'secure' are really the same word arriving by two different routes. Over time 'sure' shifted from the idea of being safe to the idea of being certain or confident, and adding '-ly' turned that into an adverb meaning 'certainly' or 'in a confident manner'. The spelling trap is that the silent final 'e' of 'sure' is kept before '-ly', giving 'surely' rather than the tempting but wrong 'surly', which is an entirely different word meaning bad-tempered.

How the word is built

• sure (from Latin securus: free from care, safe)
• -ly (adverb suffix)