routinely
Americanadverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of routinely
Explanation
When you do something routinely, you do it often and regularly. Many people routinely brush their teeth before they go to bed and again when they wake up in the morning. Something that's become a habit or an often repeated series of actions is done routinely. Your actual daily routine is one example of this — you might routinely eat cereal for breakfast, or routinely feed your cat at 5:00, for example. You can also say that a movie critic who always seems to find some fault with a film routinely trashes all your favorite movies. The French root is routine, "usual course of action," from route, "way or path."
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.
Women aged 50 to 70, external are routinely invited for breast screenings, but Turansky wants the NHS to do more to make older women aware they can ask for a mammogram every three years.
From BBC • Jun. 27, 2026
There are parallels here to the late 1990s, when tech innovation and investment resulted in productivity increases routinely north of 2.5%.
From Barron's • Jun. 26, 2026
When the studio first hired the Scottish artist, he’d routinely miss shifts to paint plein air in Southern California.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 26, 2026
As to those analogues: Jackson ridiculed Alito’s refusal to acknowledge that they show how “states routinely required affirmative consent for armed carry onto private property” at the founding.
From Slate • Jun. 25, 2026
Focused on winning in Tokyo in 1940, he smashed record after record at multiple distances and routinely buried his competition by giant margins, once winning a race by one hundred yards.
From "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
