universally

English

Etymology

From Middle English universally; equivalent to universal +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌjunɪˈvɝsəli/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsəli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: u‧ni‧ver‧sal‧ly

Adverb

universally (comparative more universally, superlative most universally)

1. In a universal manner.
   • 1909, John Claude White, Sikhim and Bhutan, page 12:

     My experience of the people was that they were universally polite, civil, and clean, and during the whole time I spent in the country, I only saw one drunken man.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎^[1]:

     If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the ever more expensive and then universally known killing hazards of gasoline cars: […] .

2. By everyone or by the vast majority of people.

   The movie was universally praised by its audience.

   • 2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Each written word when spoken is mutually incomprehensible between a Mandarin speaker in Beijing and a Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong. If you think that’s odd, consider our number system: the symbol “9” is universally recognized but it’s pronounced “nine” in English and “devet” in Slovenian.

Synonyms

• (universal manner): See also Thesaurus:generally

Derived terms

• universally unique identifier

Collocations

Adjectives often used with "universally"

• accepted, recognized, acknowledged, agreed, known, used, applied, adopted, applicable, valid, true, present, available, accessible, acceptable, popular, binding, human

Translations

in a universal manner

• Catalan: universalment (ca)
• Finnish: yleisesti (fi), yleismaailmallisesti (fi), universaalisti
• French: universellement (fr)
• Galician: universalmente
• Greek: καθολικά (el) (katholiká)
• Italian: universalmente (it)
• Portuguese: universalmente
• Spanish: universalmente (es)

Further reading

• “universally”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “universally”, in Oxford Learner's Dictionaries

Middle English

Alternative forms

• universely, universaly, universelly, universalliche, unyversaliche, universaliche, unyversally, universalye

Etymology

From universal +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iu̯niˈvɛrsaliː/, /iu̯nivɛrˈsaːliː/, /iu̯niˈvɛrsɛliː/, /iu̯niˈvɛrsaliːtʃ(ə)/

Adverb

universally (Late Middle English)

1. en masse; impacting or influencing everything or everyone.
2. usually, commonly, frequently
3. universally, always.
4. (rare) entirely, fully.

Descendants

• English: universally

References

• “ūniversā̆llī, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-31.