adv, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adverb

1. 1
   In an obvious or clearly apparent manner.

   "She was in floods of tears and obviously very upset."

2. 2
   Used as a filler word, or to introduce information even when not obvious. colloquial

   "You weren't to know, but I've spoken to, obviously, Jim about this, and ..."

Adverb

1. 1
   unmistakably (‘plain’ is often used informally for ‘plainly’) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

apparentlyclearlyabsolutelyactuallyapparentlyapparently

Antonyms

All antonyms

clandestinelycovertlyopenlysecretly

Example

More examples

"Brian is mad because Chris obviously does not intend to return the money."

Etymology

From obvious + -ly.

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