archly

[ahrch-lee]

adverb

1. in an arch or roguish manner.

Other Word Forms

• unarchly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of archly¹

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

Example Sentences

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.'”

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A great deal of care — the handmade, digital and location kind — has gone into realizing this earnest, archly amusing tale of a brooding teenage girl bonding with a threatened furry forest creature.

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But the film itself seems to refer to it, archly, as several critics have noted: In it, Smith gets slapped by his co-star, Martin Lawrence, and called a “bad boy.”

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

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Her song, the archly titled I Wrote A Song, was a bubbly pop anthem that won approval from fans - but lacklustre staging and a problematic vocal performance torpedoed her chances.

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