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bigly
[ big-lee ]
/ ˈbɪg li /
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This shows grade level based on the word's complexity.
adverb
in a big way; greatly: Their gifts made the children smile bigly.Aaron was tall for his age, and bigly built.
strongly; with violent force: Waves pounded bigly against our starboard side.
boastfully; haughtily: She pronounces her opinions bigly, as if they are divine mandates.
adjective
pleasantly habitable: a settlement of modest but bigly homes.
QUIZ
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Question 1 of 7
Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.
historical usage of bigly
Adding the suffix -ly is a thoroughly standard way to form an adverb from an adjective. However, although bigly was in use from about 1400 to the early 1900s, it never quite caught on in English, perhaps because the adjective big also quite adequately functions as an adverb: to win big.
Words nearby bigly
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023