adv ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb

1. 1
   In a fierce manner.

   "The wind blew fiercely and the rain fell heavily."

2. 2
   extremely; to a large degree

   "fiercely competitive"

Adverb

1. 1
   in a physically fierce manner wordnet
2. 2
   in an emotionally fierce manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

ferociouslyatrociouslycruellydesperatelyferociouslyfrantically

Example

More examples

"To make matters worse, it began to thunder fiercely."

Etymology

From Middle English fersly; equivalent to fierce + -ly.

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