Uniformly

How to spell uniformly

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce uniformly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does uniformly mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is the same throughout or applies equally to all cases.

Uniformly in a sentence

• The inspector found the steel plates were uniformly thick across the whole batch.

• The new policy was applied uniformly to every department in the company.

Where does uniformly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin uniformis, meaning 'having one form' or 'of a single shape', which combined unus, the Latin word for 'one', with forma, meaning 'shape' or 'form'. Latin used it to describe something consistent in appearance throughout. The adjective 'uniform' entered English in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by way of French uniforme, carrying the sense of unvarying or constant. The adverb 'uniformly' was then built in the usual English way by adding the suffix -ly to that adjective. The same forma root survives in a whole family of everyday words such as 'format', 'conform', and 'transform', and remembering that 'form' sits whole and unaltered in the middle of the word is the cleanest way to keep its spelling straight.

How the word is built

• uni- (one)
• form (shape)
• -ly (adverb suffix)