stately
/ˈsteɪtli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.13 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
adv
In a stately manner.
Example Sentences
- "Warwick's first glance had revealed the fact that the young woman was strikingly handsome, with a stately beauty seldom encountered."
- "And much as they welcome his promise to repeal "don't ask, don't tell", they are dismayed by the stately pace and bungled tactics of his attempts to do so."
- "At about twenty past three in the afternoon, these aircraft duly began to arrive. The cruiser Northampton was towing Hornet at a stately five knots when, out of the sky, came seven torpedo-armed aircraft. They managed to miss the barely-moving Hornet with all but one drop... but one hit was really all that it took, the location causing additional damage to the stricken carrier and demolishing most of the repairs that had been made to the earlier damage."
- "Germany can’t afford to stick to the stately plod into decline that Merkel initiated any longer. Merz will have to act fast, and break things to pull the country out of the quagmire it finds itself in."
- "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree: / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea."
- "Their stately offices—their pleasant gardens—the magnificent cloisters constructed for their recreation, were all dilapidated and ruinous; […]"
Etymology
From Middle English staately, staatly, stateli, statelie, stately, statelyche, statelye, statli, statly. Compare stour. By surface analysis, state + -ly (adjectival suffix).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: staately, stately
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈsteɪtli/
Inflected Forms
statelier (comparative)
stateliest (superlative)
more stately (comparative)
most stately (superlative)