Hesitantly

adv

adv ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    With hesitation.

    "The sounds from Barb's clarinet began to take the shape of a melody, played quietly at first, hesitantly, with a misblown note here and there."

  2. 2
    With reluctance.
Adverb
  1. 1
    with hesitation; in a hesitant manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
diffidentlyhesitatinglyhesitatinglyreluctantlyreluctantlyuneasily

Example

More examples

"Tom climbed the ladder slowly and hesitantly, afraid of falling."

Etymology

From hesitant + -ly.

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