quickly
Americanadverb
Commonly Confused
See quick.
Etymology
Origin of quickly
Explanation
When you do something quickly, you do it really fast — like when you quickly eat breakfast so you won’t be late to school. The adverb quickly can describe any action that’s done at great speed. If you see a wolf running quickly, that means it’s moving rapidly and you’d better hide quickly. Quickly can also carry the sense of doing something without delay or hesitation. Sometimes quickly has a connotation of not putting much thought or effort into something, like when you quickly do your math homework.
Vocabulary lists containing quickly
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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.
While still in college, Barr started Step Up Social, a marketing firm, and Flashpass, a workforce-development platform, and he quickly built a net worth of roughly $25 million.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 9, 2026
"Every step further back in time makes the puzzle more perplexing: How did the Universe produce supermassive black holes so quickly?"
From Science Daily • Jul. 9, 2026
Word quickly spread around Poultney as locals started googling the new proprietor.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 9, 2026
Born in Guinea-Bissau, he moved to Portugal at the age of seven and had to adapt quickly to a new environment.
From BBC • Jul. 9, 2026
Eighteen million dollars’ worth of valuable oil are dumped into the Pasig River to keep it out of Japanese hands, but things quickly spin out of control and the oil catches on fire.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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.
