Visibly

How to spell visibly

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce visibly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does visibly mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is clearly noticeable or able to be seen.

Visibly in a sentence

• The manager was visibly annoyed by the late delivery.

• The patient seemed visibly relieved once the results came back clear.

Where does visibly come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb videre, meaning 'to see', from which came the adjective visibilis, 'able to be seen'. Latin passed visibilis into Old French as visible, and English adopted it during the 1300s, adding the native adverb ending -ly to form visibly, 'in a way that can be seen'. The same videre root sits inside a whole family of familiar English words, including vision, visit, evident, and supervise, all of which carry some idea of seeing or being seen. The spelling trap lies in the ending: the adverb is built on the -ible form, not -able, so it is visibly and never 'visably'. Remembering that the root is the noun vision, with its clear i, helps fix the vowel that the unstressed syllable tends to swallow in speech.

How the word is built

• vis- (from Latin videre: to see)
• -ible (able to be)
• -ly (adverb suffix)