probably
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- probablely (obsolete)
- probally, probly, prolly (colloquial, slang)
- proly (leetspeak)
- pby (text messaging)
Etymology
[edit]From Middle English probably, probabily, equivalent to probable + -ly.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (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
[edit]probably (comparative more probably, superlative most probably)
- 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
[edit]in all likelihood
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Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms suffixed with -ly
- English 3-syllable words
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adverbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English hedges
- English modal adverbs