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-ly

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-ly¹

  • /-li/
  • [liː] UK
  • [lɪ] UK
  • [li] US
  • [ɫiː] New Zealand

Where it comes from

From Middle English -ly, -li, -lik, -lich, -like, from Old English -līċ, from Proto-West Germanic *-līk, from Proto-Germanic *-līkaz (“having the body or form of”), from *līką (“body”) (whence lich). In form, probably influenced by Old Norse -ligr (“-ly”) (Norwegian Bokmål -lig, Faroese -ligur, Icelandic -legur). Cognate with Dutch -lijk, German -lich, Danish -lig and Swedish -lig. Doublet of -like, more at like.

suffix more -ly · -lier · most -ly · -liest

  1. morpheme Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "behaving like, or having a nature typical of what is denoted by the noun" Similar in meaning to -like but most often paired with animate nouns. man + -ly → manly
  2. morpheme Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "appearing like, resembling, or having the likeness of what is denoted by the noun". bloom + -ly → bloomly

    Similar: -oid, quasi-, para-, -form, -iform, -esque, -some, -ass, -like

  3. morpheme Used to form adjectives from nouns specifying time intervals, the adjectives having the sense of "occurring at such intervals". month + -ly → monthly

Similar: -ish, -like, -y, -ous, -some

-ly²

  • /-li/
  • [liː] UK
  • [lɪ] UK
  • [li] US
  • [ɫiː] New Zealand

Where it comes from

From Middle English -ly, -li, -liche, from Old English -līċe.

suffix more -ly · most -ly

  1. morpheme Used to form adverbs from adjectives and nouns. sudden + -ly → suddenly
  2. morpheme Used to form company or brand names. book + -ly → Bookly

Thesaurus

suffix

Similar: -ish, -like, -y, -ous, -some

Translations

Every language

suffix forming adjectives from nouns, in the sense "occurring at such intervals"

Deutsch-lich
Русскийеже- ježe-

suffix forming adjectives from nouns, in the sense "similar to, like, characteristic of"

Español-oso
中文地 di, 的 de
Português-oso, -ento, -mente
Français-ment
Deutsch-lich, -ig, -isch, -haft
Русский-ский -skij, -ски -ski

suffix used to form adverbs from adjectives

Español-mente, de manera/forma/modo, a lo, en clave, con carácter/tono
日本語...く, ...に -ni
中文地 de
Português-mente
Français-ment
Deutsch-erweise, -lich
Italiano-mente
Ελληνικά-α -a
Русский-о -o, -е -e, по-...-ски po-...-ski, -ски -ski
עבריתב־ be-/bi-

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Cite this
MLA

"-ly." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/-ly. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

-ly. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/-ly

Chicago

"-ly." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/-ly.

BibTeX
@misc{ly_2026,
  title = {-ly},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/-ly},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}