usually
Americanadverb
adverb
Synonym Usage
See often.
Etymology
Origin of usually
First recorded in 1450–1500; late Middle English; usual ( def. ) + -ly
Explanation
If you usually do something, that’s what you do on a normal day. Tonight you might be making a seven-course meal to celebrate your birthday, even though usually you just get take-out pizza. Usual comes from the word use, and implies "the most common use." A screwdriver usually drives screws into something, or takes them out. Unusually, you have strung your screwdriver on a chain and are wearing it as a necklace. You can also say usually to describe the normal state of things: "On New Year’s Eve, this usually quiet street erupts with noise."
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.
JGB prices may also be buoyed by ongoing decline in crude oil prices which usually alleviates inflationary pressure in Japan and may reduce the urgency for the BOJ to hike rates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Cases in the U.S. comprise only the smallest fraction of those numbers, with annual deaths usually in the low hundreds and diagnosed cases in the thousands.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
Meanwhile, third party firms are building and selling services based on AI agents, usually based on an LLM, which are trained to do specific tasks.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
Rap is usually made quickly by impossibly young stars for an equally young audience, so it tends toward today’s fashion.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026
Regan looked particularly wild, her blond hair, usually straight, waving out in unruly tangles and twists that made her wide frightened eyes stand out sharply in her pale face.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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.
