Word.ws English Dictionary

soberly

soberly adverb: in a sober manner; temperately; coolly; calmly; gravely; seriously.

Adverb

soberly (comparative more soberly, superlative most soberly)

  1. In a sober manner; temperately; coolly; calmly; gravely; seriously.
    • Amongst this number of cordials and alteratives I do not find a more present remedy than a cup of wine or strong drink, if it be soberly and opportunely used.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II...
    • They gathered soberly in the farthest recess of the ward and gossiped about him in malicious, offended undertones, rebelling against his presence as a ghastly imposition and resenting him malevolently for the nauseating truth of which he was bright reminder.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 169

Forms of soberly

comparativemore soberly
superlativemost soberly

Origin of soberly

From Middle English soberly; equivalent to sober + -ly.

Questions about soberly

What does soberly mean?
Soberly means in a sober manner; temperately; coolly; calmly; gravely; seriously.
What part of speech is soberly?
Soberly is an adverb.

Words near soberly in the dictionary

  1. soberising
  2. soberize
  3. soberized
  4. soberizes
  5. soberizing
  6. soberly
  7. soberness
  8. sobernesses
  9. sobers
  10. sobers down
  11. sobers up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: soberly (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: “soberly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/soberly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.