Word.ws English Dictionary

clownishly

clownishly adverb: in a clownish, undignified, or foolish manner; absurdly, ridiculously.

Adverb

clownishly (comparative more clownishly, superlative most clownishly)

  1. In a clownish, undignified, or foolish manner; absurdly, ridiculously.
    • The swift December dusk had come tumbling clownishly after its dull day1916, James Joyce, chapter III, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 115

Forms of clownishly

comparativemore clownishly
superlativemost clownishly

Origin of clownishly

From clownish + -ly.

Questions about clownishly

What does clownishly mean?
Clownishly means in a clownish, undignified, or foolish manner; absurdly, ridiculously.
What part of speech is clownishly?
Clownishly is an adverb.

Words near clownishly in the dictionary

  1. clowning around
  2. clowning on
  3. clowningly
  4. clownings
  5. clownish
  6. clownishly
  7. clownishness
  8. clownishnesses
  9. clownism
  10. clownless
  11. clownlike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clownishly (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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