pleasantly

English

Alternative forms

• pleasauntlie, plesantlie, pleasauntly, plesantly, plesauntly (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English pleasauntly; equivalent to pleasant +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplɛzəntli/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pleas‧ant‧ly

Adverb

pleasantly (comparative more pleasantly, superlative most pleasantly)

1. In a pleasant manner; so as to achieve a pleasant result.

   He smiled pleasantly at passersby.

   They were pleasantly surprised at the result.

2. (degree) Lightly
3. (obsolete) Ludicrously.
   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 1, Midas”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, (please specify |book=I or IV, or the page):

     In workhouses, pleasantly so named, because work cannot be done in them.

Translations

in a pleasant manner

• Catalan: agradablement (ca)
• Esperanto: agrable
• French: agréablement (fr)
• Hungarian: kellemesen (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: dilettosamente (it)
• Latin: amoenē
• Polish: miło (pl)
• Spanish: agradablemente (es)

References

• pleasantly in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.