originally
Americanadverb
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with respect to origin; by origin.
Originally he came from California.
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at the beginning; at first.
Originally this was to be in three volumes.
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in the first place; primarily.
Originally nomads, they first learned agriculture from the missionaries.
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in an original, novel, or distinctively individual manner.
Originally planned houses are much in demand.
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Archaic. from the beginning; from the first; inherently.
adverb
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in the first place
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in an original way
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with reference to the origin or beginning
Etymology
Origin of originally
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A version of this story originally appeared on Max Kutner’s Zephyr Letter substack.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Demand for electric vehicles is in a slump, leaving automakers with the need for fewer batteries than originally anticipated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
When the fossils were originally found, scientists had far fewer mosasaur specimens available for comparison, making it difficult to determine exactly what kind of mosasaur the bones represented.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
Pagers were originally used because they allowed for rapid information sharing.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
“Malala Yousafzai fights for education. She’s from Pakistan, which is where my family is originally from. Malala loved going to school and wanted to be a doctor one day.”
From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
