slowly

[sloh-lee]

adverb

1. in a slow manner; at a slow speed.

   Sauté the peppers slowly.

   I drove slowly back home.

Confusables Note

See slow.

Word History and Origins

Origin of slowly¹

First recorded in 1310–50; Middle English slawliche, slawly; slow ( def. ), -ly ( def. )

Example Sentences

The idea began at Hewlett-Packard in the 1950s—a foreshadowing of the Silicon Valley look of today—and slowly spread, hitting the East Coast in the early 1990s.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Many prostate cancers grow so slowly you would have to live to 120-150 years old before they were a threat - so they do not need treating, the National Screening Committee said.

Read more on BBC

I wanted to take things slowly, to be sure his intentions matched mine.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Instead, they think he will refine the company’s pipeline of lithium projects, with developments happening more slowly than originally planned.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Others in the sector, from Salesforce to Adobe, have also suffered under the weight of expectations—and the assumption that AI will slowly eat away at their businesses.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• calmly 
• casually 
• deliberately 
• gently 
• gradually 
• haltingly www.thesaurus.com
• lazily www.thesaurus.com
• nonchalantly 

When To Use

What is a basic definition of slowly?

Slowly is used when something is happening in a slow manner or in a way that lacks speed or quickness.Slowly is the adverb form of the word slow, which describes something as lacking speed. If you walk slowly, for example, you are not moving quickly. Things that happen slowly take much longer to occur than things that happen quickly.

• Real-life examples: Sloths, snails, and turtles move very slowly. For safety, it is a good idea to drive slowly past schools or construction sites. For most people, time moves slowly when they are bored, at school, or at work.



• Used in a sentence: She picked up the broken glass slowly and carefully.