scarcely
Syllables: scarce·lyUK/ˈskɛəsli//ˈskɛɹsli/
scarcely adverb: probably not.
Adverb
scarcely (comparative more scarcely, superlative most scarcely)
- Probably not.
- One could scarcely find any trout in the stream without the stocking program.
- The staff here are frequently in the news, thanks to their successful efforts to make an attractive station where travellers would scarcely expect to find one.1951 October, William B. Stocks, “A Few Miles from Huddersfield”, in Railway Magazine, page 701
- Certainly not, hardly at all.
- One could scarcely expect the man to know how to fly a helicopter.
- He did not enter upon the subject without being aware that government by its very nature counteracts the improvement of individual intellect; but, as the views he entertains in this particular are out of the common road, it is scarcely to be wondered at that he understood the proposition more...1842, William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
- Synonyms:
- scarce
- Hardly: only just; by a small margin.
- Scarcely had she arrived when she was put to work.
- He had scarcely finished, when the labourer arrived who had been sent for my ransom.1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC
scarcely meaning in Bengali and Malayalam
scarcely in Bengali
- কদাচিৎ, খুব কমই
scarcely in Malayalam
- ഒരിക്കലും, കഷ്ടിച്ച്, കാര്യമായിട്ടല്ലാതെ, കുറവായി, ഇല്ലാതെ
Examples of scarcely in a sentence
- But, of course, this weather had put a stop to every kind of movement; for even if men could have borne the cold, they could scarcely be brought to face the perils of the snow-drifts.1869, R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone:
- It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye to a telescope.1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Difficulties on Theory”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John...
- In 1776 manufactories scarcely existed even in name in all this vast territory.1875 December 7, Ulysses S. Grant, Ulysses S. Grant's Seventh State of the Union Address:
- Scarcely had she got fairly into it, however, before the beasts closed in behind her, […]1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet:
Synonyms of scarcely
Forms of scarcely
| comparative | more scarcely |
|---|---|
| superlative | most scarcely |
Origin of scarcely
From Middle English scarcely, scarsly, scarsely, scarsliche, scarseliche, equivalent to scarce + -ly.
Questions about scarcely
- What does scarcely mean?
- Scarcely means probably not.
- What is scarcely in Bengali?
- Scarcely in Bengali is কদাচিৎ, খুব কমই. See Scarcely meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use scarcely in a sentence?
- But, of course, this weather had put a stop to every kind of movement; for even if men could have borne the cold, they could scarcely be brought to face the perils of the snow-drifts.
- What part of speech is scarcely?
- Scarcely is an adverb.
- How do you pronounce scarcely?
- Scarcely is pronounced /ˈskɛəsli/ (UK).
Words near scarcely in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scarcely (page history and authors); Scarcely (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scarcely (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-scarcely.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scarcely.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scarcely. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.