Word.ws English Dictionary

steply

steply adverb: step by step; gradually; in steps; stepwise. Also the misspelling of steeply.

Adverb

steply (comparative more steply, superlative most steply)

  1. Step by step; gradually; in steps; stepwise.
    • Some of the most significant Paleozoic inliers occur near Las Delicias in southwestern Coahuila, 480 km (300 miles) south of the Marathon region, where a thick sequence of marine Permian with volcanic components has been steply folded […]1969, Geological Survey (U.S.), U.S. Geological Survey professional paper
    • For an instance, the disadventages about the die CAD system are as the following: * CAD technique can only participate in the design process partially and steply.1992, International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences. Congress, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, ICAS proceedings, 1992

Adjective

steply (comparative more steply, superlative most steply)

  1. Stepwise; gradual.
    • The electron-hole pairs produced on this way cause a steply rise of the reverse current (i.e. field emission).1968, International Measurement Congress, International Measurements Conference, Acta IMEKO

Also used as

steply is also the misspelling of steeply.

Forms of steply

Adverb
comparativemore steply
superlativemost steply
Adjective
comparativemore steply
superlativemost steply

Origin of steply

From step + -ly.

Questions about steply

What does steply mean?
Steply means step by step; gradually; in steps; stepwise.
What part of speech is steply?
Steply can be an adverb or an adjective.

Words near steply in the dictionary

  1. steples
  2. stepless
  3. steplessly
  4. steplessness
  5. steplike
  6. steply
  7. stepma
  8. stepmam
  9. stepmama
  10. stepmamas
  11. stepmamma

Source and license

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