quickly
Americanadverb
Commonly Confused
See quick.
Etymology
Origin of quickly
Explanation
When you do something quickly, you do it really fast — like when you quickly eat breakfast so you won’t be late to school. The adverb quickly can describe any action that’s done at great speed. If you see a wolf running quickly, that means it’s moving rapidly and you’d better hide quickly. Quickly can also carry the sense of doing something without delay or hesitation. Sometimes quickly has a connotation of not putting much thought or effort into something, like when you quickly do your math homework.
Vocabulary lists containing quickly
Scrabble: High Scoring Words
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
20 Common Words That Will Boost Your Scrabble Score
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If that heat is not removed quickly and reliably, equipment performance drops, failures increase and the data center can shut down.
From Science Daily • Jun. 19, 2026
And when game 3 didn’t work out, the last two lines were quickly improvised: “The Pope’s on our side / Knicks in Five.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026
If temperatures dropped quickly below minus 20C, or sometimes minus 30C, the water in the pipes was liable to freeze, cracking the pipes and ruining the whole system.
From BBC • Jun. 18, 2026
“I don’t predict,” the octogenarian Nobel Prize winner quickly texted back, “so the price is always right.”
From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026
I did a little googling the other day, but I stalled out quickly because most things are already full, or else I’m either too old or too young.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
