Unanimously

How to spell unanimously

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce unanimously

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unanimously mean?

1. adverbIn a way that reflects the full agreement of everyone involved, with no one dissenting.

Unanimously in a sentence

• The committee voted unanimously to approve the new budget.

• The jury unanimously found the defendant not guilty.

Where does unanimously come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin unanimus, which literally meant 'of one mind' and was formed by joining unus, meaning 'one', with animus, meaning 'mind' or 'spirit'. The crucial point for spelling is that the opening 'un' here is not the familiar negative prefix at all; it is the Latin word for 'one', so the idea is people sharing a single mind rather than something being undone. English took the adjective 'unanimous' in the early 1600s, and the adverb 'unanimously' followed naturally by adding the ordinary -ly ending. The animus root still echoes through relatives such as 'animated' and 'animosity', all carrying the sense of spirit or feeling. Remembering that anim sits in the middle, the same root as in 'animal' and 'animation', helps fix the single n that follows the a and the regular -ously ending.

How the word is built

• un- (from Latin unus: one)
• anim (from animus: mind, spirit)
• -ous (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)