Word.ws English Dictionary

foolishly

/ˈfuːlɪʃli/

foolishly adverb: in a foolish manner.

Adverb

foolishly (comparative more foolishly, superlative most foolishly)

  1. In a foolish manner.
    • He dressed foolishly to entertain the children.
    • I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural aukwardness.1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XVII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume I, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 220
  2. Without good judgment.
    • Foolishly, he had decided that, because a home was the best investment, two homes were even better.
    • Now Mr. Bush plans to pour more arms into this unstable region and add fuel to the volatile powderkeg he has foolishly created.2007 August 1, “Unwise Arms Deal With Saudi Arabia (2 Letters)”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022

Examples of foolishly in a sentence

  • “Nothing to speak of,” said Adam Woodcock, answering for the boy—“a foolish quarrel with me, which was more foolishly told over again to my honoured lady, cost the poor boy his place.[…]”1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XV, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and...
  • What, is it daylight?’ he said, staring foolishly about. ‘No, it’s starlight, blokey,’ Snowy said, patting him on the head.1911, ‘Steel Rudd’, The Book of Dan, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, published 1970, page 26:

All 16 example sentences with foolishly

Forms of foolishly

comparativemore foolishly
superlativemost foolishly

Origin of foolishly

From Middle English folysly, folysschly; equivalent to foolish + -ly.

Questions about foolishly

What does foolishly mean?
Foolishly means in a foolish manner.
How do you use foolishly in a sentence?
“Nothing to speak of,” said Adam Woodcock, answering for the boy—“a foolish quarrel with me, which was more foolishly told over again to my honoured lady, cost the poor boy his place.[…]”
What part of speech is foolishly?
Foolishly is an adverb.
How do you pronounce foolishly?
Foolishly is pronounced /ˈfuːlɪʃli/.

Words near foolishly in the dictionary

  1. foolios
  2. foolish
  3. foolish guillemot
  4. foolisher
  5. foolishest
  6. foolishly
  7. foolishment
  8. foolishments
  9. foolishness
  10. foolishnesses
  11. foollike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foolishly (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-foolishly.wav.

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