Tirelessly

How to spell tirelessly

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tirelessly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tirelessly mean?

1. adverbIn a way that shows great effort without becoming weary or giving up.

Tirelessly in a sentence

• The volunteers worked tirelessly to clear the flooded homes before nightfall.

• She campaigned tirelessly for better funding at the local hospital.

Where does tirelessly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This adverb is built from the verb 'tire', which traces back to the Old English 'teorian', meaning 'to fail, to grow weary, or to become exhausted'. The exact prehistory of 'teorian' is unclear, and it does not have obvious relatives in the other Germanic languages, so its deeper roots remain uncertain. By the time of Middle English the verb had settled into the modern sense of becoming or making weary. The suffix '-less', from Old English 'leas' meaning 'free from' or 'without', turns 'tire' into 'tireless', literally 'without tiring', and the common adverb-forming '-ly' (Old English '-lice', 'in the manner of') completes 'tirelessly', meaning 'in a way that never seems to weary'. The spelling trap is the join: writers must keep the final 'e' of 'tire' before '-less' and resist doubling any letters, giving the clean run tire + less + ly.

How the word is built

• tire (to grow weary)
• -less (without)
• -ly (adverb suffix)