Slowly

//ˈsləʊli// adv

adv ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    At a slow pace.

    "Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer."

Adverb
  1. 1
    without speed (‘slow’ is sometimes used informally for ‘slowly’) wordnet
  2. 2
    in music wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
ponderouslytardilyaridlybarrenlybit by bitbloodlessly

Example

More examples

"The cows were moving very slowly through the long green grass."

Etymology

From Middle English slowly, slowli, slouli, slowliche, from Old English slāwlīċe (“slowly; sluggishly”), equivalent to slow + -ly. Compare Old Norse slæliga, sljóliga.

Related phrases

make haste slowlyplease speak more slowlyslowly but surelythe mills of the gods grind slowly

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