Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Showing results for pointedly. Search instead for pointelle.
Synonyms

pointedly

American  
[poin-tid-lee] / ˈpɔɪn tɪd li /

adverb

  1. in a marked, emphasized, or particularly directed fashion.

    Many media outlets are reporting on the incident—but pointedly avoiding showing the images at the center of the story.

    When a conference was convened to discuss a policy of settling environmental battles through negotiation, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance pointedly was not invited.

Etymology

Origin of pointedly

pointed ( def. ) + -ly

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.

You and your husband, Ed Harris, kind of pointedly did not stand or applaud during a standing ovation.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2026

Even Christian music performers Cory Ashbury and Forrest Frank pointedly announced that they won’t be appearing.

From Salon • Jan. 30, 2026

Other now-former employees rather pointedly noted the timing of Bending Spoons’ recent incursion; Buitenhuis even added that it “feels bad to see something you built get Spooned.”

From Slate • Jan. 23, 2026

I had the opportunity to speak with two of them last month at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Orlando, Fla., where I participated in a panel pointedly called “Agentic AI: Is it Real?”

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 12, 2025

“And if it is up to Vikus, soon we will have no baskets to give,” the girl said pointedly to the bearded man who had turned his focus to Gregor and Boots.

From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins

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.