hardly
UK/ˈhɑːdli//ˈhɑɹdli/
hardly adverb: barely, only just, almost not.
Adverb
hardly (comparative hardlier or more hardly, superlative hardliest or most hardly)
- Barely, only just, almost not.
- They hardly ever watch television.
- It's hardly possible he could lose the election.
- Certainly not; not at all.
- I hardly think they'll come in this bad weather!
- With this the second of three games in seven days for Stoke, it was hardly surprising to see nine changes from the side that started against Newcastle in the Premier League on Monday.2011 November 3, David Ornstein, “Macc Tel-Aviv 1-2 Stoke”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 27 Jan 2012
- With difficulty.
- And what gentle flame soever doth warme the heart of young virgins, yet are they hardly drawne to leave and forgoe their mothers, to betake them to their husbands […]., Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.234
- While in Chelsea, Anne Smiley pined, taking very hardly to her unaccustomed role of wife abandoned.1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 40
- Harshly, severely; in a hard manner.
- I was a fool when I married him; and I am so far an incurable fool on that subject, that, for the sake of what I once believed him to be, I wouldn’t have even this shadow of my idle fancy hardly dealt with.1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC
- "Mr. Cholmondeley, the young men out here are much too hardly worked to allow them time for paying impertinent compliments."1866 February, [O.G. Trevelyan], “The Dawk Bungalow”, in Frazer's Magazine, London, page 219
- Firmly, vigorously, with strength or exertion.
- Let him hardly be possest with an honest curiositie to search out the nature and causes of all things […]., Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.148
- Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly, that I felt the palpitation of every artery; at others, I nearly sank to the ground through languor and extreme weakness.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter IV, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding...
Interjection
- Not really.
- I think the Beatles are a really overrated band. ― Hardly!
hardly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
hardly in Hindi
- barely, only just
- थोड़े thoṛe
hardly in Tamil
- அரிதாக, போதாமல், மெதுவாக, அவ்வளவாக, சிறிது நேரத்திற்கு மட்டுமே
hardly in Urdu
- بہ مشکل, مشکل سے, شاید
hardly in Bengali
- কষ্টসহকারে, কমই বটে
More languagesFewer languages
- hardly in Malayalam
- കഷ്ടിച്ച്, പ്രയാസപ്പെട്ട്, മനസ്സില്ലാമനസ്സോടെ
- hardly in Thai
- แทบจะไม่ tɛ̂ɛp jà mâi
- hardly in Vietnamese
- hầu như không, vừa mới
Examples of hardly in a sentence
- Hardly did I arrive when he left.
- I could hardly have managed it in less time.
- That little heap had been for two thousand years the wisest, loveliest, proudest creature - I can hardly call her woman - in the whole universe.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, archived from the original on 01 May 2024, page 68:
- Only I wasn't at all pleased with that; I saw that he was simply sorry for me because I was so hardly treated by grandmother, and that was all.1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Constance Garnett, White Nights (Constance Garnett translation), page 51:
- The War pressed hardly upon imaginative men in responsible positions.1928, Dorothy Sayers, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club:
Synonyms of hardly
Forms of hardly
| comparative | hardlier |
|---|---|
| comparative | more hardly |
| superlative | hardliest |
| superlative | most hardly |
Origin of hardly
From Middle English hardely, hardliche, from Old English heardlīċe (“boldly; hardily; without ease; in a way that causes pain; not easily; only by degrees”), equivalent to hard + -ly. Compare Dutch hardelijk, German härtlich.
Words formed from hardly
Phrases with hardly
Questions about hardly
- What does hardly mean?
- Hardly means barely, only just, almost not.
- What is hardly in Hindi?
- Hardly in Hindi is थोड़े (thoṛe). See Hardly meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use hardly in a sentence?
- Hardly did I arrive when he left.
- What part of speech is hardly?
- Hardly can be an adverb or an interjection.
- How do you pronounce hardly?
- Hardly is pronounced /ˈhɑːdli/ (UK).
Words near hardly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hardly (page history and authors); hardly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hardly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hardly (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hardly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hardly.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hardly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hardly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.