Word.ws English Dictionary

professly

professly adverb: professedly (in a professed manner).

Adverb

professly (comparative more professly, superlative most professly)

  1. (US, rare) Professedly (in a professed manner).
    • But Padre Fulgentio profeſsly aſcribes the invention to that prodigy of Wiſdom, Learning, and Virtue, Padre Paolo the Venetian: […]1683 March 29 (Gregorian calendar), Walter Charleton, “Prælectio I. Of the Circular Motion of the Bloud, and the Admirable Effects Thereof.”, in Three Anatomic Lectures, […], London: […] Walter...
    • But religious people are, even in spite of what they professly believe, optimists as a rule.1978, Mahinda Palihawadana, “A Buddhist Response: Religion Beyond Ideology and Power”, in Donald G. Dawe, John B[raisted] Carman, editors, Christian Faith in a Religiously Plural World, Maryknoll...

Forms of professly

comparativemore professly
superlativemost professly
alternative form (obsolete)profesly

Origin of professly

Apparently shortened from professedly. Compare Middle English profes (“professed”). Apparently unattested between the 17th and 20th centuries, hence a repeated coinage.

Questions about professly

What does professly mean?
Professly means professedly (in a professed manner).
What part of speech is professly?
Professly is an adverb.

Words near professly in the dictionary

  1. professionizes
  2. professionizing
  3. professionless
  4. professions
  5. professionym
  6. professly
  7. professor
  8. Professor Cube
  9. Professor Cubes
  10. Professor Moriarty
  11. professor ordinarius

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: professly (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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