probably
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- probablely (obsolete)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English probably, probabily, equivalent to probable + -ly.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɒbəbli/, (colloquial) /ˈpɹɒbli/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɑbəbli/, (colloquial) /ˈpɹɑbli/, (colloquial) /ˈpɹɑəbli/
Audio (US) (file)
Adverb[edit]
probably (comparative more probably, superlative most probably)
- In all likelihood.
- 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest[1]:
- “[…] 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.
Synonyms[edit]
- (in all likelihood): likely, perhaps, maybe, possibly, presumably, most likely, doubtless, in all probability, perchance, as likely as not, as like as not
Translations[edit]
in all likelihood
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Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English words suffixed with -ly
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