Scarcely

//ˈskɛəsli// adv

adv ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    Probably not. modal

    "One could scarcely find any trout in the stream without the stocking program."

  2. 2
    Certainly not, hardly at all. modal

    "One could scarcely expect the man to know how to fly a helicopter."

  3. 3
    Hardly: only just; by a small margin.

    "Scarcely had she arrived when she was put to work."

Adverb
  1. 1
    only a very short time before wordnet
  2. 2
    almost not wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
hardlybarelybarelyhardlya bita little

Antonyms

All antonyms
often

Example

More examples

"There are scarcely any flowers in our garden."

Etymology

From Middle English scarcely, scarsly, scarsely, scarsliche, scarseliche, equivalent to scarce + -ly.

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