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adverb · 2 syllables · /'hɒt.li/

HOTLY

What does "HOTLY" mean?

In an intense, passionate, or angry manner; with strong feeling.

Meanings

  1. With intensity, passion, or anger. The claim was hotly disputed at the meeting.
  2. Closely and persistently, as in pursuit. The favourite was hotly pursued by the underdog all season.

Did you know?

  • The '-ly' that turns 'hot' into 'hotly' once meant 'body' or 'form': it comes from Old English '-lice', the same root as 'like', so 'hotly' is literally 'hot-like'.

Word origin

From 'hot' (Old English 'hat', warm) + the adverbial suffix '-ly'; the figurative sense of heat as anger or passion is ancient and shared across many languages.

Remember it

HOTLY = HOT + LY: the manner of heat. If you're arguing hotly, your words have a temperature.

A little poem

Two voices climbing, neither giving ground-
the room grows warm before a fist is found.

couplet

What it teaches

Heat in an argument warms the room but rarely the mind; intensity is not the same as being right.

Quick facts

What does HOTLY mean?

In an intense, passionate, or angry manner; with strong feeling.

Is HOTLY a valid word?

Yes — HOTLY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.

How many letters is HOTLY?

HOTLY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.

Where does HOTLY come from?

From 'hot' (Old English 'hat', warm) + the adverbial suffix '-ly'; the figurative sense of heat as anger or passion is ancient and shared across many languages.

What can HOTLY teach us?

Heat in an argument warms the room but rarely the mind; intensity is not the same as being right.

How players do

Be the first to solve it.

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