How do you pronounce dearly?

The recorded pronunciation is /ˈdɪɹli/.

Where does dearly come from?

It is traced to Middle English.

dearly

/ˈdɪɹli/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.48 in modern English

Syllables: dear-ly
IPA: /ˈdɪɹli/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

adv

In a dear or precious manner.

adv

In a dear or expensive manner.

adv

At great expense; dear.

Example Sentences

"the funeral of our dearly beloved sister"
"a dearly priced item"
"He paid dearly for his mistake."
"But I take solace in the fact that the public has seen the enormous mountain of evidence proving what Fox did, and Fox paid dearly for it."

Etymology

From Middle English derely, deorliche, from Old English dēorlīċe (“worthily, richly”), equivalent to dear + -ly.

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: derely, dēorlīċe

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈdɪɹli/
British English: /ˈdɪəli/

Inflected Forms

more dearly (comparative) dearlier (comparative, rare) most dearly (superlative) dearliest (rare, superlative)

Phrases

dearly departed pay dearly sell dearly sell one's life dearly

Synonyms

dear affectionately in a heartfelt way

Rhymes With

nearly clearly merely severely sincerely yearly cavalierly austerely bierly