Gravely
Americannoun
Explanation
To do something gravely means to do it in a solemn, serious way. When someone gives you bad news, they often say it gravely. If you ask about a sick relative and your dad gravely shakes his head, you'll know that the relative isn't feeling better. Anything you do or say gravely conveys a sense of solemnity. Another way to use this word is to mean "to an alarming degree," like a person who is gravely ill or a gravely mistaken answer to a test question. Gravely is from the adjective grave and its Latin root gravis, "heavy."
Vocabulary lists containing gravely
The Battle of the Labyrinth
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"Little Red Riding Hood" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
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"The Midnight Children" by Dan Gemeinhart, Chapters 1–6
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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.
The USS Gravely, a missile-guided destroyer, docked in Trinidad last week while U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 4, 2025
On Sunday, guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely arrived in Trinidad and Tobago, a dual-island nation just off Venezuela's coast, as part of the US's largest military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in decades.
From BBC • Oct. 26, 2025
The USS Gravely will dock in Port of Spain from October 26-30, and a contingent of US Marines will conduct joint training with the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force, it said.
From Barron's • Oct. 24, 2025
Santa Margarita got a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh from Warren Gravely IV to defeat Los Alamitos 5-4.
From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2025
His aunt, Mrs. Gravely, had taught me history in junior high.
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
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.
