Unbelievably

How to spell unbelievably

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce unbelievably

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unbelievably mean?

1. adverbTo an extent so great that it is hard to accept as true; extremely.

Unbelievably in a sentence

• The flights were unbelievably cheap during the off-season sale.

• She finished the marathon unbelievably quickly for a first-time runner.

Where does unbelievably come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This adverb is built on the verb 'believe', which descends from the Old English belīefan, meaning 'to trust in' or 'to hold dear', itself related to the same Germanic root that gave us 'love' and the idea of holding something precious. To this native English core were added two suffixes of Latin origin: '-able', meaning 'capable of' or 'worthy of', which produced the adjective 'unbelievable' (literally 'not able to be believed'), and the native English adverb-forming '-ly'. The word therefore stacks a negative prefix, a Germanic verb, and two suffixes in a row, which is exactly why writers stumble: the 'ie' in 'believe' is preserved straight through, and the 'e' of 'believe' is dropped before '-able'. The phrase 'i before e except after c' is the memory hook that keeps the 'believ' spine correct. In modern use it has drifted from a strict 'cannot be believed' into a casual intensifier meaning 'extremely', much like 'incredibly'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• believe (Old English belīefan: to trust, hold dear)
• -able (capable of, worthy of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)