Word.ws English Dictionary

namely

/ˈneɪmli/

namely adverb: specifically; that is to say.

Adverb

namely (not comparable)

  1. Specifically; that is to say.
    • Some of the students — namely Paul, Alice and Jake — seem to have trouble with geometry.
    • There are three ways to do it, namely the right way, the wrong way and the Army way.
  2. (archaic) Especially, above all.
    • THus was sir Tramtryst longe there wel cherysshed / with the kynge and the quene / and namely with la beale Isoud / So vpon a daye / the quene and la beale Isoud made a bayne for syre Tramtryst / And whan he was in his bayne / the quene and Isoud her doughter romed vp & doune in the chamber1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book VIII

Adjective

namely (comparative more namely or namelier, superlative most namely or nameliest)

  1. Notable, distinguished; famous, renowned; well-known.
    • […] and certainly there was no namelier king in Scotland for building churches and developing the communities of the land into free towns or burghs.1915, Thomas Ratcliffe Barnett, The Makers of the Kirk, page 93

namely meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

namely in Hindi

namely, videlicet
यथा yathā

namely in Tamil

அஃதாவது, அதாவது, அவையாவன, என்னவெனில்

namely in Urdu

namely, that is
یعنی yā'nī

namely in Bengali

যথা
More languagesFewer languages
namely in Malayalam
അതായത്, എന്നുവച്ചാൽ, എന്തെന്നാൽ
namely in Kannada
ಅದೆಂದರೆ, ಏನೆಂದರೆ, ಎಂದರೆ, ಅರ್ಥಾತ್
namely in Sanskrit
किल kíla, अह áha
namely in Indonesian
yaitu

Examples of namely in a sentence

  • My family gathers twice a year, namely at Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners.
  • Every group has a unique idempotent element: namely, its identity element.
  • The monarchs of Spain and the UK have a common ancestor namely Queen Victoria.

All 40 example sentences with namely

Synonyms of namely

All synonyms of namely

Forms of namely

comparativemore namely
comparativenamelier
superlativemost namely
superlativenameliest

Origin of namely

From Middle English namely, nameliche, namelike, equivalent to name + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian nämmelk, West Frisian nammentlik, Dutch namelijk, German Low German nämlich, German nämlich, Danish nemlig, Swedish nämligen, Icelandic nefnilega.

From Middle English namely, namly, equivalent to name + -ly.

Words that rhyme with namely

Questions about namely

What does namely mean?
Namely means specifically; that is to say.
What is namely in Hindi?
Namely in Hindi is यथा (yathā). See Namely meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is namely?
Namely can be an adverb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce namely?
Namely is pronounced /ˈneɪmli/.

Words near namely in the dictionary

  1. namelessnesses
  2. namelier
  3. nameliest
  4. nameling
  5. namelings
  6. namely
  7. namenesia
  8. namepiece
  9. namepieces
  10. nameplate
  11. nameplated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: namely (page history and authors); यथा (Hindi) (page history and authors); namely (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); یعنی (Urdu) (page history and authors); namely (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); namely (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); namely (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); अह (Sanskrit) (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: “namely.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/namely. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.