swimmingly

American

[swim-ing-lee] / ˈswɪm ɪŋ li /

adverb

without difficulty; with great success; effortlessly.

She passed the exam swimmingly.

swimmingly British

/ ˈswɪmɪŋlɪ /

adverb

successfully, effortlessly, or well (esp in the phrase go swimmingly )

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of swimmingly

1615–25; swimming (in sense “progressing smoothly”) + -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.

See Examples For:

swimmingly

It was all going swimmingly on Monday, too, and the index was within touching distance of hitting the 8,000 mark.

From Barron's ● May 12, 2026

But let’s also admit that his latest way of testing the patience of global oil consumers is so far going swimmingly.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

There’s nothing like a Fed put to buttress markets, even if doubts exist this whole artificial-intelligence thing is going to work out swimmingly.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 24, 2025

"I guess they assume from social media that everything is always going swimmingly," muses Gareth.

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2023

“If things neural were going swimmingly with Vi, the number you detect would be about ninety- eight percent.”

From "Feed" by M.T. Anderson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023