Synonyms

slowly

American

[sloh-lee] / ˈsloʊ li /

adverb

in a slow manner; at a slow speed.

Sauté the peppers slowly.
I drove slowly back home.

Usage

What is a basic definition of slowly? Slowly is used when something is happening in a slow manner or in a way that lacks speed or quickness.Slowly is the adverb form of the word slow, which describes something as lacking speed. If you walk slowly, for example, you are not moving quickly. Things that happen slowly take much longer to occur than things that happen quickly.

Real-life examples: Sloths, snails, and turtles move very slowly. For safety, it is a good idea to drive slowly past schools or construction sites. For most people, time moves slowly when they are bored, at school, or at work.
Used in a sentence: She picked up the broken glass slowly and carefully.

Commonly Confused

See slow.

Etymology

Origin of slowly

First recorded in 1310–50; Middle English slawliche, slawly; slow ( def. ), -ly ( def. )

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Then, without really trying, I slowly pulled away.

From The Wall Street Journal

Faithfuls are slowly unraveling as they realize they trust no one.

From Salon

Businesses may determine it’s not an effective move in the short run to keep giving new employees textbook grunt work as they slowly build their experience.

From MarketWatch

Davidson described the emergence of a tic as a "gut-wrenching feeling in the middle of your stomach which slowly rises to your chest".

From BBC

The lush number slowly worked its way up the charts, eventually reaching No. 1 on Billboard in 1975.

From Los Angeles Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023