Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use surely in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb

Surely means without fail. Example: “Surely, you must be joking.”

Examples of surely by meaning

adverbWithout fail.

  • slowly but surely

adverbCertainly, undoubtedly.

  • Surely, you must be joking.
  • You don’t suppose we're going to pay for you, surely?
  • She’s surely got the letter by now.

adverbWith confidence.

  • His feet were planted surely on the ground.

More sentences with surely

  • He totally screwed up that project. Now he's surely for the sack.From the entry for
  • The baby will surely have green eyes, because both parents have.From the entry will
  • I know he suffered from depression, but surely he wouldn't go so far as to kill himself?From the entry go so far as
  • He's a good mechanic, and surely knows a thing or two about car engines.From the entry a thing or two
  • By now, you must surely know which is which.From the entry which
  • With all these purchases, you surely mean to ruin us!From the entry ruin
  • Twenty miles surely is a long way to walk.From the entry way
  • The sheriff was constantly goading me into shooting trespassers, which should surely count as incitement at the very least.From the entry incitement
  • Surely all right-minded people agree that bigamy is wrong.From the entry right-minded
  • The plural form of this noun must surely have existed in the speech of medieval farmers, although it is unattested in surviving books from the period.From the entry unattested
  • The region may be sparsely populated now, but our new infrastructure project will surely attract tons of development and investment. If you build it, they will come.From the entry if you build it, they will come
  • Surely there was a conscious weakness in the Spartans, who were always at pains to discipline their men in heroical conduct, and rewarded none save the standfasts.From the entry standfast
  • Hyrum's law tells us that a failure to maintain bug compatibility in newer editions will surely lead to breakages, even if the API never promised those behaviors to begin with.From the entry bug compatibility
  • For us, surely, it would be a story for the ages.2026 June 24, Lucy Mangan, “Poop Cruise review – a fascinating look at a toilet disaster that still haunts passengers 12 years later”, in…. From the entry so to speak
  • The apotheosis of the type is surely Martha Stewart, the acknowledged O.G. of class-inscribed self-optimization.2026 March 30, Guy Trebay, “Can You Fake Being Rich?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry og
  • Trump will surely declare victory in Iran, just as he did last summer.2026 March 2, Ben Rhodes, “Trump May Come to Regret This”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry news cycle
  • Surely the country wouldn’t be fooled by the same trick twice.2025 December 9, Polly Toynbee, “Come with me to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s house. The Brexiters are rattled – and it shows”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry romancer
  • See, he said, the high are punished as surely as the low.2023, Vajra Chandrasekera, The Saint of Bright Doors, Solaris (2024), pages 377-378. From the entry casteist
  • Surely a judge would not take his mistress on circuit with him?2021 May 1, Narrelle M Harris, The Only One in the World: A Sherlock Holmes Anthology, Clan Destine Press, →ISBN. From the entry Carolian
  • An extension to the transition period which ends this year would surely help the pound.2020 March 19, Marcus Ashworth, “Cheap Sterling Has Reasons to Be Cheaper”, in The Washington Post. From the entry blow off course
  • To see the birth of a new star, Nathan surely knew, was a rare privilege.2020, Gene Brown, Seven Candlesticks to Kingdom Come. From the entry starwatcher
  • Surely his part was to play the ringleader, the anti-hero, not the have-a-go hero.2020 October 28, Mark Roland Langdale, “A Night at the Old Toy Shop”, in The Toy Museum: The Boy Who Gave His Birthdays Back, Kibworth…. From the entry baddy two-shoes
  • If Guthrie's talking blues are comedic powerhouses, the same can surely be said of his singing blues.2019, Will Kaufman, Mapping Woody Guthrie, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 26. From the entry talking blues
  • Though the programs will surely get better, there are no signs of foom.2018, Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, →ISBN. From the entry foom
  • And maybe it's taken 84 years but Bang That Was Promised is surely coming.2018 March 8, brieoftarts, Reddit. From the entry Bang That Was Promised
  • Surely, there were other families out there dealing with MPS I.2017 May 13, Ashley Strickland, “Warned he would die by age 10, he just graduated college”, in CNN. From the entry mps
  • Surely Jacob must have discussed this with her over the weekend at the shore.2017, Linda Maran, Stranger, Pelican Ventures Book Group, →ISBN. From the entry make down
  • Surely atoms cannot be combined in such a way to create life, much less to think.2017, Don Carswell, “An Unexpected Trip”, in Look at the Sun: A Coming-of-Middle-Age Journey, [Pennsauken, N.J.]: [BookBaby], →ISBN, page…. From the entry I think; therefore, I am
  • He played like the point guard the Knicks surely hoped they had acquired in June.2016 November 28, Mike Vorkunov, “Despite Flash of Rose’s Prime, Knicks Are Dazed by Westbrook and Thunder”, in The New York Times. From the entry firepower
  • Such carnophobia aside, the aliens were surely right to be puzzled.2016, Andy Clark, Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN, page xiv. From the entry carnophobia
  • After our few brief days of springy weather it surely is a sudden change.2015, Marian Baldwin, Canteening Overseas 1917-1919. From the entry springy
  • If he was not still actively drunk, his head was surely pounding with the afterclap of rye.2014, Robert Olen Butler, chapter 39, in The Empire of Night, New York: The Mysterious Press, page 249. From the entry afterclap
  • He thinking surely a boy wearing glasses can't be a rudie.2014, Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings, Oneworld Publications (2015), page 66. From the entry rudie
  • Maybe it is hard to say exactly why we're not sphexish, but surely we're not.2013, Stephen D. Hales, “Freedom”, in This is Philosophy: An Introduction, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, paragraph…. From the entry sphexish
  • I, and surely the other Arianators, cannot wait to see what Ariana Grande has to offer next.2013, Victoria Smith, Yours Truly review, Verity, Fall 2013, page 35. From the entry Arianator

Meaning of surely

  1. adverb Without fail.
  2. adverb Certainly, undoubtedly.
  3. adverb With confidence.

Full definition of surely

Questions about surely in a sentence

How do you use surely in a sentence?
Surely is used as an adverb. For example: “Surely, you must be joking.”
What is a short sentence with surely?
“slowly but surely”
What does surely mean?
Surely means without fail.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: surely (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use surely in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/surely. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.