-ly
/-li/UK[liː]
-ly suffix: 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.
Suffix (1)
-ly (adjective-forming suffix, comparative more -ly or -lier, superlative most -ly or -liest)
- 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
- comrade + -ly → comradely
- 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
- muscle + -ly → muscly
- Used to form adjectives from nouns specifying time intervals, the adjectives having the sense of "occurring at such intervals".
- month + -ly → monthly
- day + -ly → daily
Suffix (2)
-ly (adverb-forming suffix, comparative more -ly, superlative most -ly)
-ly meaning in Persian and Myanmar
-ly in Persian
- forming adjectives from nouns, in the sense "similar to, like, characteristic of"
- مآبانه -me-âbâne
- used to form adverbs from adjectives
- ـانه -âne, ـیها -ihâ
-ly in Myanmar
- used to form adverbs from adjectives
- စွာ cwa
Synonyms of -ly
Forms of -ly
| comparative | more -ly |
|---|---|
| comparative | -lier |
| superlative | most -ly |
| superlative | -liest |
Origin of -ly
From Middle English -ly, -li, -lik, -lich, -like, from Old English -līċ, from Proto-West Germanic *-līk, from Proto-Germanic *-līkaz (“having the body or form of”), from *līką (“body”) (whence lich). In form, probably influenced by Old Norse -ligr (“-ly”) (Norwegian Bokmål -lig, Faroese -ligur, Icelandic -legur). Cognate with Dutch -lijk, German -lich, Danish -lig and Swedish -lig. Doublet of -like, more at like.
From Middle English -ly, -li, -liche, from Old English -līċe.
Words formed from -ly
Questions about -ly
- What does -ly mean?
- -ly means 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.
- What is -ly in Persian?
- -ly in Persian is مآبانه (-me-âbâne), ـانه (-âne), ـیها (-ihâ). See -ly meaning in Persian.
- What part of speech is -ly?
- -ly is a suffix.
- How do you pronounce -ly?
- -ly is pronounced /-li/.
Words near -ly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: -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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us--ly.ogg.
Cite this entry: “-ly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-ly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.