Word.ws English Dictionary

direly

direly adverb: in a dire manner.

Adverb

direly (comparative more direly, superlative most direly)

  1. In a dire manner

Forms of direly

comparativemore direly
superlativemost direly

Origin of direly

From dire + -ly.

Questions about direly

What does direly mean?
Direly means in a dire manner.
What part of speech is direly?
Direly is an adverb.

Words near direly in the dictionary

  1. directrixes
  2. directs
  3. direful
  4. direfully
  5. direfulness
  6. direly
  7. dirempt
  8. dirempted
  9. dirempting
  10. diremption
  11. diremptions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: direly (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: “direly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/direly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.