Word.ws English Dictionary

swiftly

/ˈswɪftli/

swiftly adverb: in a swift manner; quickly; with quick motion or velocity; fleetly.

Adverb

swiftly (comparative swiftlier or more swiftly, superlative swiftliest or most swiftly)

  1. In a swift manner; quickly; with quick motion or velocity; fleetly.
    • Mrs. Piper cut short these piracies by swiftly removing his spoon.1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 21
    • The head of the North Tyne is reached at Deadwater, 36 miles from Hexham. The river has its source just on the English side of the Border, at the foot of Peel Fell, the most westerly spur of the Cheviots. At first it is a sluggish stream (hence the name Deadwater) but begins to flow more swiftly...1955 September, H. A. Vallance, “The Border Counties Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 594

swiftly meaning in Malayalam, Kannada and Sanskrit

swiftly in Malayalam

ത്വരിതം, മുറുക്കെ, വേഗത്തിൽ

swiftly in Kannada

ಕಡು, ಸರಕ್ಕನೆ, ಬಿರುಬಿರನೆ, ಬಿರಿಬಿರನೆ, ಬಿರ್ರನೆ

swiftly in Sanskrit

quickly
आशु āśu

Examples of swiftly in a sentence

  • At first it is a sluggish stream (hence the name Deadwater) but begins to flow more swiftly before it reaches Kielder.1955 September, H. A. Vallance, “The Border Counties Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 594:
  • Strategic sites in even the remotest regions of the kingdom were swiftly fortified using forced labour.1999, Linda Flavell, Roger Flavell, “1066[:] The Normans Begin to Erect Castles”, in dictionary of english down through the ages[:] words &...
  • [T]he early hostility of the Bulgarian supporters was swiftly subdued.2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC:

All 40 example sentences with swiftly

Forms of swiftly

comparativeswiftlier
comparativemore swiftly
superlativeswiftliest
superlativemost swiftly

Origin of swiftly

From Middle English swiftly, swyftely, swiftliche, from Old English swiftlīċe (“swiftly”), equivalent to swift + -ly.

Questions about swiftly

What does swiftly mean?
Swiftly means in a swift manner; quickly; with quick motion or velocity; fleetly.
What is swiftly in Malayalam?
Swiftly in Malayalam is ത്വരിതം, മുറുക്കെ, വേഗത്തിൽ. See Swiftly meaning in Malayalam.
How do you use swiftly in a sentence?
At first it is a sluggish stream (hence the name Deadwater) but begins to flow more swiftly before it reaches Kielder.
What part of speech is swiftly?
Swiftly is an adverb.
How do you pronounce swiftly?
Swiftly is pronounced /ˈswɪftli/.

Words near swiftly in the dictionary

  1. swiftlet
  2. swiftlets
  3. swiftlier
  4. swiftliest
  5. swiftlike
  6. swiftly
  7. Swiftmania
  8. swiftness
  9. swiftnesses
  10. Swiftology
  11. Swiftonomics

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: swiftly (page history and authors); swiftly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); swiftly (Kannada 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-swiftly.ogg.

Cite this entry: “swiftly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swiftly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.