Word.ws English Dictionary

tacitly

tacitly adverb: in a tacit manner; done in silence or implied.

Adverb

tacitly (comparative more tacitly, superlative most tacitly)

  1. In a tacit manner; done in silence or implied.
    • Your failure to object to the request resulted in you tacitly approving the change.
    • The new accusation brought by Urban against Manfred of murdering his sister-in-law's embassador – it may be observed that, tacitly, he acquits him of parricide, fratricide, and nepoticide – requires a little explanation.1856, Mrs. William Busk, Mediæval Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Crusaders: Or, Germany, Italy and Palestine, from A.D. 1125 to A.D. 1268, volume IV, London: Hookham and Sons, →OCLC, page 294

Examples of tacitly in a sentence

  • Since old Waziri’s death Tarzan had been directing the warriors in battle, and the temporary command had been tacitly conceded to him.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 148:
  • The assumption that these are identical in meaning and usage between Indian English and Anglo-American English, while tacitly accepted, is untested, and fundamentally unknown.2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes, page 306:
  • Regarding the “3.5% rule”, she [Erica Chenoweth] points out that while 3.5% is a small minority, such a level of active participation probably means many more people tacitly agree with the cause.2019 May 13, David Robson, “The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world”, in BBC:

All 11 example sentences with tacitly

Forms of tacitly

comparativemore tacitly
superlativemost tacitly

Origin of tacitly

From tacit + -ly.

Questions about tacitly

What does tacitly mean?
Tacitly means in a tacit manner; done in silence or implied.
How do you use tacitly in a sentence?
Since old Waziri’s death Tarzan had been directing the warriors in battle, and the temporary command had been tacitly conceded to him.
What part of speech is tacitly?
Tacitly is an adverb.

Words near tacitly in the dictionary

  1. tacit programming
  2. Tacitan
  3. Tacitean
  4. Tacitian
  5. Tacitism
  6. tacitly
  7. tacitness
  8. tacitron
  9. tacitrons
  10. taciturn
  11. taciturnist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tacitly (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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