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.
The new Roadster demo gave Tesla shares a short boost, but they quickly came back to Earth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Standing on ladders, the Palestinian farmers worked quickly, sending streams of olives onto the plastic sheets laid out under the trees.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
"They were very discreet, the apartment was always quiet, as if no one lived there. They would come and go very quickly," added a neighbor.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Some of the losses were quickly made up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
They call it "sepsis," and they know from bitter experience how quickly a "septic" wound can go from slight redness to gross swelling to a fatal condition called gangrene.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
