Terribly

How to spell terribly

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce terribly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does terribly mean?

1. adverbTo a very great degree; extremely.
2. adverbIn a very poor, unpleasant, or unsuccessful manner.

Terribly in a sentence

• She was terribly sorry about missing the meeting.

• The team played terribly in the second half and lost the lead.

• The new flat is terribly expensive for its size.

• The printer performed terribly and jammed on every page.

Where does terribly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb terrere, which meant 'to frighten' or 'to fill with dread'. From it came the adjective terribilis, meaning 'causing terror' or 'dreadful', which English took in through Old French as 'terrible' during the 1400s. The adverb 'terribly' was then formed in English by adding the ordinary adverb suffix -ly. Over the centuries the sense softened: a word that once described genuine horror weakened into a casual intensifier, so that 'terribly sorry' now simply means 'very sorry' rather than anything dreadful. The same terrere root still lives openly in 'terror', 'terrify', and 'deter' (literally 'to frighten away'), and the spelling trap comes from the -ible base hidden inside, which gives the unexpected -ibly ending rather than -ably.

How the word is built

• terr- (from Latin terrere: to frighten)
• -ible (able to, capable of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)