adv ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb

1. 1
   In a dear or precious manner.

   "the funeral of our dearly beloved sister"

2. 2
   In a dear or expensive manner.

   "a dearly priced item"

3. 3
   At great expense; dear.

   "He paid dearly for his mistake."

Adverb

1. 1
   at a great cost wordnet
2. 2
   with affection wordnet
3. 3
   in a sincere and heartfelt manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

affectionatelyaffectionatelydearin a heartfelt wayin heartfelt waylovingly

Example

More examples

"Experience, when it is dearly bought, is never discarded."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

pay dearlysell dearlysell one's life dearly

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.