highly
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English hiȝly, heȝly, heyȝliche, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English hēalīce (“highly”), equivalent to high + -ly. Cognate with Dutch hoogelijk (“highly”), German höchlich (“highly”), Danish højlig (“highly”), Swedish högligen (“highly”).
Pronunciation
Adverb
highly (comparative highlier or more highly, superlative highliest or most highly)
- In a high or esteemed manner.
- He spoke highly of you.
- Extremely; greatly; very much.
- 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
- Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.
- He is in a highly visible job.
Usage notes
- The adverb highly and the adverb high shouldn't be confused.
- This is certainly highly recommended.
- High above us the stars were shining.
- Some verbs commonly collocating with highly: praise, rate, value, speak (see speak highly)
- Some adjectives commonly collocating with highly: disappointing, paid, encouraging
Translations
in a high or esteemed manner
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extremely, greatly, awfully
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms suffixed with -ly
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English adverbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English degree adverbs