Word.ws English Dictionary

-liest

-liest is the superlative form of -ly.

Meaning of -ly

Suffix (1)

-ly (adjective-forming suffix, comparative more -ly or -lier, superlative most -ly or -liest)

  1. Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "behaving like, or having a nature typical of what is denoted by the noun" Similar in meaning to -like but most often paired with animate nouns.
    • man + -ly → manly
  2. Used to form adjectives from nouns, the adjectives having the sense of "appearing like, resembling, or having the likeness of what is denoted by the noun".
    • bloom + -ly → bloomly
  3. Used to form adjectives from nouns specifying time intervals, the adjectives having the sense of "occurring at such intervals".
    • month + -ly → monthly

Suffix (2)

-ly (adverb-forming suffix, comparative more -ly, superlative most -ly)

  1. Used to form adverbs from adjectives and nouns.
    • sudden + -ly → suddenly
  2. Used to form company or brand names.
    • book + -ly → Bookly

Questions about -liest

What is -liest the superlative form of?
-liest is the superlative form of -ly.

Words near -liest in the dictionary

  1. -ley
  2. -li-
  3. -licious
  4. -lie
  5. -lier
  6. -liest
  7. -like
  8. -lim-
  9. -limnion
  10. -lin
  11. -ling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -liest (page history and authors); -ly (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “-liest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-liest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.