Word.ws English Dictionary

subtilly

subtilly is the obsolete form of subtly.

Meaning of subtly

Adverb

subtly (comparative more subtly, superlative most subtly)

  1. With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force.
    • Nexte cometh Arrius by ſoo muche the more wretched and madde in opynyon, by howe muche he dothe more ſubtely and craftily geue unto Chriſt the body of a man, and taketh from hym the ſowle of a man, […]1533, Erasmus of Roterdame, “The Thyrde Instruction”, in William Marshall, transl., A Playne and Godly Exposytion or Declaration of the Commune Crede (which in the Latin Tonge is Called Symbolum...

Forms of subtilly

comparativemore subtilly
superlativemost subtilly

Origin of subtilly

From subtil + -ly.

Questions about subtilly

What is subtilly the obsolete form of?
Subtilly is the obsolete form of subtly.

Words near subtilly in the dictionary

  1. subtilizer
  2. subtilizers
  3. subtilizes
  4. subtilizing
  5. subtill
  6. subtilly
  7. subtilomycin
  8. subtilopeptidase
  9. subtilopeptidases
  10. subtilosin
  11. subtilosins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subtilly (page history and authors); subtly (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: “subtilly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subtilly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.