mightily
/ˈmaɪtɪli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.77 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The chivalrous knights entered the lists and fought mightily."
- "So cry Hand & Hyle the eldest of the fathers of Albions / Little-ones; to destroy the Divine Saviour: the Friend of Sinners. / Building Castles in desolated places, and strong Fortifications. / Soon Hand mightily devour'd & absorb'd Albions Twelve Sons."
- "[A] spirit as of prophecy had come upon him, constraining him to its purpose as mightily as the old prophets of Israel were constrained; […]"
- "And Bagdemagus's son Meliganus brake a spear upon Sir Gareth mightily and knightly."
- "But they were silent in amazement and expectation when they saw the mighty white ape wriggle upon the back of their king, and with steel muscles tensed beneath the armpits of his antagonist, bear down mightily with his open palms upon the back of the thick bull-neck, so that the king ape could but shriek in agony and flounder helplessly about upon the thick mat of jungle grass."
- "'The Lord is working mightily,' puffed Pastor Finch, smacking the bongos with his palms. 'Praise the Lord.'"
Etymology
From Middle English mightili (“with might, powerfully, strongly; forcefully, violently; greatly; etc.”), from Old English meahtiglice (“with might, powerfully, mightily”), from meahtiġ, mihtiġ (“powerful, mighty”) + -līċe (suffix forming adverbs). Mihtiġ is derived from Proto-Germanic *mahtīgaz (“mighty”), from *mahtiz (“force, strength; ability, power”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ- (“to be able”)) + *-gaz (suffix with the sense ‘being; doing; having’ forming adjectives). By surface analysis, mighty + -ly (suffix forming adverbs).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *megʰ-, mightili, meahtiglice, *mahtīgaz
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmaɪtɪli/
- British English: /ˈmaɪtɪli/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more mightily (comparative)
most mightily (superlative)