Thankfully

How to spell thankfully

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce thankfully

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does thankfully mean?

1. adverbUsed to express relief that something good happened or something bad was avoided; fortunately.
2. adverbIn a manner that shows gratitude or appreciation.

Thankfully in a sentence

• Thankfully the flight was delayed, so we still managed to board.

• She thankfully accepted the lift home after the long shift.

• The fire alarm sounded, but thankfully everyone was already outside.

• The volunteers thankfully received the donated supplies.

Where does thankfully come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built entirely from native English material that goes back to Old English. The core is 'thanc', an Old English noun meaning a thought, a kindly thought, and so gratitude, which is related to the verb 'thencan', to think; gratitude was originally understood as a thought directed kindly towards someone. By adding 'ful', meaning 'full of', speakers formed 'thancful', literally 'full of thanks', and the further suffix '-lice' (the ancestor of modern '-ly') turned it into an adverb. Over time the word developed a second, looser use as a sentence adverb meaning 'fortunately', expressing relief rather than literal gratitude. The spelling trap is the join in the middle: 'thank' plus 'ful' (with a single l in the suffix) plus '-ly' yields the doubled l of 'fully', so the form ends in '-fully', not '-fuly'.

How the word is built

• thank (root: express gratitude)
• -ful (full of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)