relentlessly
/ɹəˈlɛn(t)ləsli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.21 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
In a relentless manner.
adv
In a relentless manner.
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonyms: harshly, pitilessly, ruthlessly"
- "For sleep, he knew, kept most relentlessly / Its precious charge, and silent death exposed, / Faithless perhaps as sleep, a shadowy lure, / With doubtful smile mocking its own strange charms."
- "He said gardaí had responded professionally to "thuggish violence" in the area and those arrested would be "charged, named and dealt with relentlessly" by the criminal justice system."
- "My friend is one of thoſe people, vvho having formerly cut a very gay figure in the vvorld, is ſtill ambitious of ſpreading the May-bloom of tvventy-five upon the vvinter of threeſcore; and deſirous of diſplaying in the fulneſs of his ſpirits, that ſprightlineſs and vivacity vvhich time has relentleſsly taken from his perſon: […]"
- "The vision must be shared. The leadership team must believe in it and pursue it relentlessly, along with the leader herself."
Etymology
Etymology tree English relentless Middle English -ly English -ly English relentlessly From relentless + -ly (suffix forming abverbs from adjectives and nouns). Relentless is derived from relent (“(noun) act of relenting or giving way, yielding; (verb) to become less cruel or harsh; to become less intense”) + -less (suffix meaning ‘lacking, without’); and relent from Middle English relenten (“to melt; to soften; to dissolve in water; of weather: to be cool and moist”), from Anglo-Norman relenter, relentir (“to melt; to shrivel; to give up; to slacken”), and also influenced by Middle French ralenter, ralentir (“to abate; to slow down”) (modern French ralentir), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’ having intensifying effect) + alenter, alentir (“to slow down”) (from Old French alentir, from a- (prefix denoting entering a state or progressing towards a goal) + lent (“slow”) (from Latin lentus (“slow, sluggish”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lentos (“pliant; soft; smooth”)) + -ir (suffix forming infinitives of verbs)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹəˈlɛn(t)ləsli/
- British English: /ɹɪˈlɛntləsli/
Inflected Forms
more relentlessly (comparative)
most relentlessly (superlative)