Wildly

How to spell wildly

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce wildly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wildly mean?

1. adverbIn an uncontrolled, extreme, or extravagant manner.

Wildly in a sentence

• The new restaurant became wildly popular within a month of opening.

• His estimate of the repair cost turned out to be wildly inaccurate.

Where does wildly come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is the adverb form of 'wild', which descends from the Old English 'wilde', meaning untamed, uncultivated, or living in a natural state without human control. The root traces back to a common Germanic source, related to the Dutch 'wild' and the German 'wild', all carrying the same sense of something not domesticated. The adverb-forming ending '-ly' comes from the Old English '-lice', literally 'having the form or body of', which over time weakened into the all-purpose suffix that turns adjectives into adverbs. By the time these joined, 'wildly' described actions done in an uncontrolled or extravagant manner, and the modern figurative use, as in 'wildly popular' or 'wildly inaccurate', simply stretches that idea of being beyond normal bounds. The spelling keeps the full base word 'wild' intact before the suffix, so the 'd' is never dropped, which is the small point worth remembering.

How the word is built

• wild (from Old English wilde: untamed, uncontrolled)
• -ly (adverb suffix)