implicitly

American  

[im-plis-it-lee] / ɪmˈplɪs ɪt li /

adverb

1. without actually saying so; in a way that does not use words.

   Consumers buying the company’s products are implicitly accepting its practices.

2. without question or reservation; absolutely.

   I trusted her implicitly and listened intently to everything she said.

3. as an inherent but hidden part of the way things are; latently.

   The threat of violence against women is implicitly present all around us, everywhere.

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Other Word Forms

• unimplicitly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of implicitly

implicit ( def. ) + -ly

Explanation

When you express something indirectly, you say it implicitly. Your sister might implicitly suggest that you're the one who ate the last cookie by glaring at you then looking at the empty plate. When you communicate something implicitly, you don't say it directly. Instead, you might drop hints or let your actions express it, like when a teacher doesn't stop a kid from bullying another, which implicitly says it's okay to bully. Implicitly can also be a synonym for absolutely — you trust your best friend implicitly: completely, without any reservations.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

implicitly

"Manipulating posture implicitly through environmental constraints influences mood and risk-taking behaviour," by Soren Wainio-Theberge and Jorge Armony, was published in the British Journal of Psychology.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026

By foregrounding these credentials, such accounts implicitly credit established political connections and organizational base—rather than a single consultant’s strategy—as central to Pelosi’s rise.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026

Well, in happy news, the court said in Chatrie, implicitly, we don’t much care what James Madison thought about smartphone data privacy.

From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026

“Our forecast implicitly assumes that oil and refined product exports can resume quickly through the Strait of Hormuz,” the analyst says, noting Iran and the U.S. agreed on interim peace deal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

These implicitly assume either that the universe is spatially infinite or that there are infinitely many universes.

From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking

Related Words

• essentially