slowly

[sloh-lee]

adverb

1. in a slow manner; at a slow speed.

   Sauté the peppers slowly.

   I drove slowly back home.

Confusables Note

See slow.

Word History and Origins

Origin of slowly¹

First recorded in 1310–50; Middle English slawliche, slawly; slow ( def. ), -ly ( def. )

Example Sentences

“Private property owners put entire communities at risk when they let vacant or abandoned properties spiral out of control, and the city bureaucracy makes things worse by moving far too slowly.”

From Los Angeles Times

Dmytro is taking it slowly though, because being back here requires some adjusting.

From BBC

The win over South Africa was the second match that New Zealand have started slowly.

From BBC

If undocumented people are afraid to show up to install drywall, Nickelsburg told me, it “means you finish homes much more slowly, and that means fewer people are employed.”

From Los Angeles Times

It made him wonder how his generation had slowly drifted away from their mother tongue, as other languages like English, Urdu and Hindi became more widespread.

From BBC

Related Words

• calmly 
• casually 
• deliberately 
• gently 
• gradually 
• haltingly www.thesaurus.com
• lazily www.thesaurus.com
• nonchalantly 

When To Use

What is a basic definition of slowly?

Slowly is used when something is happening in a slow manner or in a way that lacks speed or quickness.Slowly is the adverb form of the word slow, which describes something as lacking speed. If you walk slowly, for example, you are not moving quickly. Things that happen slowly take much longer to occur than things that happen quickly.

• Real-life examples: Sloths, snails, and turtles move very slowly. For safety, it is a good idea to drive slowly past schools or construction sites. For most people, time moves slowly when they are bored, at school, or at work.



• Used in a sentence: She picked up the broken glass slowly and carefully.