clerkly
clerkly adjective: of clerks; befitting a clerk.
Adjective
clerkly (comparative clerklier, superlative clerkliest)
- Of clerks; befitting a clerk.
- the clerkly life
- Therefore, desiring to keep my place in the young Tsar’s regard, I did not speak too highly of Mazeppa, though I allowed him to be a shrewd and capable person, of clerkly rather than military attainments.1902, Fred Whishaw, chapter 12, in Mazeppa, London: Chatto & Windus, pages 104–105
- Scholarly.
- For notwithstanding al your great brags and this your clerkly booke, ye knowe not nor euer shall knowe, but that the Pope is the supreame head of the Churche.1567, Thomas Stapleton, chapter 6, in A Counterblast to M. Hornes Vayne Blaste against M. Fekenham, Louvain, page 36
- Hath he not tvvit our Soueraigne Lady here / VVith ignominious vvords, though Clarkely coucht? / As if ſhe had ſuborned ſome to ſvveare / Falſe allegations, to o'rethrovv his ſtate.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
Adverb
clerkly (comparative more clerkly, superlative most clerkly)
- In a scholarly manner.
- If these woordis to some seme spoken to clerkly, goe to, I will expounde theim more plainely.1549, Erasmus, translated by Thomas Chaloner, The Praise of Folie, London: Thomas Berthelet
- For this doo lerned persons déeme, of Ouids present woorke:
That in no one of all his bookes the which he wrate, doo lurke
Mo darke and secret misteries, mo counselles wyse and sage,
Mo good ensamples, mo reprooues of vyce in youth and age,
Mo fyne inuentions too delight, mo matters clerkly...1567, Arthur Golding, “Too the Reader”, in The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, translated oute of Latin into English meeter, London
Synonyms of clerkly
Forms of clerkly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | clerklier |
| superlative | clerkliest |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more clerkly |
| superlative | most clerkly |
Origin of clerkly
From clerk + -ly.
Words formed from clerkly
Questions about clerkly
- What does clerkly mean?
- Clerkly means of clerks; befitting a clerk.
- What part of speech is clerkly?
- Clerkly can be an adjective or an adverb.
Words near clerkly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: clerkly (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: “clerkly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clerkly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.