archly

American  

[ahrch-lee] / ˈɑrtʃ li /

adverb

1. in an arch or roguish manner.

---

Other Word Forms

• unarchly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of archly

First recorded in 1655–65; arch ² + -ly

Explanation

If you say something archly, you express it in a teasing sort of way. When someone acts archly toward you, it might offend you a bit, or it might make you laugh. You act archly when you put on an affected style of speech, or say something that's playfully sarcastic. You might archly dismiss a teacher's criticism of your work or smile archly as you tease a friend. The adverb comes from the 1500s adjective arch, which originally meant "chief," but was so often used to describe a "knave" or "rogue" that by the 17th century it came to mean "mischievous" or "saucy."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

archly

As Ganz archly observed, “the word for the politics that makes a pastiche of past glories to create a new type of regime is ‘fascism.'”

From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2025

The gentrifying Reagan years that followed gave rise to archly analytic work addressing institutional power.

From New York Times ● May 16, 2024

That’s essentially what happened when a Northern California man died in early December — a demise that his brother archly and elegantly recounted in an obituary published in The Times.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2023

“Why not amuse yourselves at our expense?” he wrote archly.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2023

“It was a near thing,” Denna said, archly.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss