probably

English

Alternative forms

• probablely (obsolete)
• probally, probly, prolly (colloquial, slang)
• proly (leetspeak)
• pby (text messaging)

Etymology

From Middle English probably, probabily, equivalent to probable +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒbəbli/, (colloquial) /ˈpɹɒbli/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑbəbli/, (colloquial) /ˈpɹɑbli/, (colloquial) /ˈpɹɑəbli/
• (Dublin) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹabli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adverb

probably (comparative more probably, superlative most probably)

1. In all likelihood.

   Synonyms: likely, in all probability, more than likely, belike (archaic)

   Coordinate terms: as like as not, as likely as not; possibly, maybe, perhaps, mayhap, mayhaps, perchance, haply; presumably; certainly, definitely, doubtless (sometimes synonymous), doubtlessly (sometimes synonymous), indubitably, undoubtably, undoubtedly, unquestionably, without a doubt, without doubt, indisputably

   She probably has arrived by now.   =   She has probably arrived by now.   =   Probably she has arrived by now.

   He'll probably arrive tomorrow.   =   He probably will arrive tomorrow.   =   Probably he'll arrive tomorrow.

   It is probably too late for amends.   =   It probably is too late for amends.   =   Probably it is too late for amends.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     “ […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes […] . And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […] ”

   • 2013 May–June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close […] above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.

Translations

in all likelihood

• Arabic: مِن اَلْمُحْتَمَل (min al-muḥtamal), رُبَّمَا (rubbamā)

  Hijazi Arabic: على الأغلب (ʕala alʼaḡlab), مُحتمل (muḥtamal)

  Moroccan Arabic: وقيل (wa-qīla)

• Armenian: հավանաբար (hy) (havanabar)
• Azerbaijani: yəqin
• Basque: seguraski
• Belarusian: вераго́дна (vjerahódna), напэ́ўна (napéŭna)
• Bulgarian: вероя́тно (bg) (verojátno)
• Catalan: probablement (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 大概 (zh) (dàgài), 或許 / 或许 (zh) (huòxú)

• Czech: pravděpodobně (cs), asi (cs), spíš (cs), spíše (cs)
• Danish: sandsynligvis
• Dutch: waarschijnlijk (nl)
• Esperanto: verŝajne (eo), kredeble
• Finnish: todennäköisesti (fi), luultavasti (fi)
• French: probablement (fr), sans doute (fr), sûrement (fr)
• Georgian: ალბათ (albat)
• German: wahrscheinlich (de), glaublich
• Greek: πιθανώς (el) (pithanós), μάλλον (el) (mállon)
• Hebrew: כנראה (kanir'é)
• Hungarian: valószínűleg (hu)
• Icelandic: líklega (is), sennilega
• Ido: probable (io)
• Indonesian: mungkin (id), kemungkinan (id)
• Interlingua: probabilemente
• Irish: is dócha (go)
• Italian: probabilmente (it)
• Japanese: 多分 (ja) (たぶん, tabun), 十中八九 (ja) (じっちゅうはっく, jitchūhakku), 恐らく (ja) (おそらく, osoraku)
• Khmer: មុខជា (muk cie)
• Korean: 아마 (ko) (ama)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish; dûr nîn e

  Central Kurdish: دوور نی ە (dûr nî e)

• Latin: probabiliter, fortasse, fortassis
• Latvian: droši vien
• Macedonian: веројатно (verojatno)
• Malay: barangkali
• Maori: puano
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: ала (ala)

• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: antakeligvis, trolig (no), sannsynlig (no)

• Polish: prawdopodobnie (pl), przypuszczalnie (pl), chyba (pl)
• Portuguese: provavelmente (pt)
• Romanian: probabil (ro)
• Russian: вероя́тно (ru) (verojátno), наве́рно (ru) (navérno)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: вероватно / вјероватно, веројатно / вјеројатно

  Roman: verovatno (sh) / vjerovatno, verojatno / vjerojatno (sh)

• Slovak: pravdepodobne
• Slovene: verjetno
• Spanish: probablemente (es), seguro (es), sin duda (es), seguramente (es)
• Swedish: nog (sv), sannolikt (sv), troligen (sv), antagligen (sv), förmodligen (sv), troligtvis (sv)
• Tagalog: baká (tl)
• Thai: ท่าจะ (tâa jà)
• Turkish: muhtemelen (tr), her halde
• Ukrainian: пе́вно (pévno), імові́рно (imovírno) / ймові́рно (jmovírno)
• Vietnamese: có lẽ (vi), có thể (vi)
• Volapük: luveratiko
• Walloon: dandjreus (wa), probåbe (wa), azår (wa)
• Yiddish: מסתּמא (mistome)
• Yup'ik: -yugnarqe (verbal postbase)
• Zazaki: teqez n, mı het ke, muhtemelen