Word.ws English Dictionary

lovelily

Syllables: love·li·ly/ˈlʌvlɪli/US/ˈlʌvləli/

lovelily adverb: in a manner to excite or inspire admiration or love; admirably, beautifully, wonderfully.

Adverb

lovelily (comparative more lovelily, superlative most lovelily)

  1. In a manner to excite or inspire admiration or love; admirably, beautifully, wonderfully.
    • By continually doing the part of Sacrificers, and eſpecially by turning all the Good Things of Earth into Sacrifices, a Converſation in Heaven vvill be moſt Lovelily Exemplifyed.1723, Cotton Mather, “Cœlestinus. Heaven Convers’d Withal. The Sixth Essay.”, in Cœlestinus. A Conversation in Heaven, Quickened and Assisted, with Discoveries of Things in the Heavenly World. […]...
    • Courage, a Youth of royal race, / Lovelily ſtern, poſſeſs'd a place / On her left-hand, and on her right, / Sat Honour, cloath'd vvith robes of Light; […]1764, C[harles] Churchill, “Book I”, in The Duellist. A Poem. […], London: […] G. Kearsly, […]; W[illiam] Flexney, […]; J. Coote, […]; C. Henderson, […]; J. Gardiner, […]; and J. Almon, […], →OCLC...
  2. (obsolete) In a friendly or pleasant manner; amiably, kindly, pleasantly.
    • Moreover hovv lovelily do the Graces cling to one another! Hovv vvell does their garment become them, being not girt to them vvith any girdle, the skirts of it vvaving to and fro at liberty.1671, Desiderius Erasmus, “The Wedding Song”, in H. M. [attributed to Henry More or Henry Munday], transl., The Colloquies, or Familiar Discourses of Desiderius Erasmus of Roterdam, […], London: […]...

Examples of lovelily in a sentence

  • So lovelily the morning shone, / That—let the old and weary sleep— / I could not; […]1813 December 2 (date written), Lord Byron, “Canto I. Stanza III.”, in The Bride of Abydos. A Turkish Tale, London: […] Thomas Davison...
  • Whatso looks lovelily / Is but the rainbow on life's weeping rain. / Why have we longings of immortal pain, / And all we long for mortal?1889, Francis Thompson, “Ode to the Setting Sun”, in The Works of Francis Thompson, volume I (Poems), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s...

Forms of lovelily

comparativemore lovelily
superlativemost lovelily

Origin of lovelily

From Middle English lovelily, lovelyly (“in a friendly manner, graciously, kindly; beautifully; in a seemly manner, with decorum (?)”) [and other forms], from loveli, lovely (“affectionate, friendly, kind; admirable, excellent; amorous; beautiful, lovely; lovable; proper, seemly (?)”, adjective) (from Old English luflīċ (“amiable, dear, likable, pleasant, lovely; worthy of love, lovable”), from Proto-Germanic *leubalīkaz (“lovely”), from *leubaz (“beloved, dear”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“to admire; to covet, desire, want; to love; to praise”)) + -li (suffix forming adverbs). The English word is analysable as lovely + -ly (suffix forming adverbs).

Questions about lovelily

What does lovelily mean?
Lovelily means in a manner to excite or inspire admiration or love; admirably, beautifully, wonderfully.
How do you use lovelily in a sentence?
So lovelily the morning shone, / That—let the old and weary sleep— / I could not; […]
What part of speech is lovelily?
Lovelily is an adverb.
How do you pronounce lovelily?
Lovelily is pronounced /ˈlʌvlɪli/ (UK).

Words near lovelily in the dictionary

  1. lovelifying
  2. lovelight
  3. lovelights
  4. lovelihead
  5. lovelike
  6. lovelily
  7. loveliness
  8. lovelinesses
  9. loveling
  10. lovelings
  11. Lovell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lovelily (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lovelily.wav.

Cite this entry: “lovelily.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lovelily. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.