gradually

Adverb

gradually (comparative more gradually, superlative most gradually)

1. In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.
   • The most likely conclusion, the researchers say, is that the Levallois method was not taken to Eurasia by African migrants, but evolved there gradually and independently.2014 September 29, Douglas Quenqua, “Toolmaking May Have Risen Independently”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 01 Oct 2014
   • The instrument of this dumbing down in Nineteen Eighty-Four was Newspeak, the official language of the English Socialist Party (Ingsoc). Newspeak was a sort of Totalitarian Esperanto that sought gradually to diminish the range of what was thinkable by eliminating, contracting and manufacturing...2021 January 5, Peter Foster, “Peter Foster: Sustainable Newspeak by 2050”, in Financial Post, archived from the original on 31 Mar 2021

   Synonyms:

   ponderously

2. (obsolete) by degrees
   • Horns, upon the due accession of Moisture, doth gradually become Soft.1682, Nehemiah Grew, The Anatomy of Plants. […], [London]: […] W. Rawlins, for the author, published 1682, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   incrementally