Surely

//ˈʃɔːli// adv

adv ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    Without fail.

    "slowly but surely"

  2. 2
    Certainly, undoubtedly.

    "Surely, you must be joking."

  3. 3
    With confidence.

    "His feet were planted surely on the ground."

Adverb
  1. 1
    definitely or positively (‘sure’ is sometimes used informally for ‘surely’) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
certainlyfor certainabsolutelyall rightalrightalrighty

Example

More examples

"If Spenser doesn't keep adding and translating sentences, the other contributors will surely surpass him."

Etymology

From Middle English surely; equivalent to sure + -ly.

Related phrases

almost surely

More for "surely"

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