Dictionaries › English

likely

Pronunciation: /ˈlaɪkli/

The English word “likely” has 10 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Probable; having a greater-than-even chance of occurring.
  2. Reasonably to be expected; apparently destined, probable.
  3. Appropriate, suitable; believable; promising, having a good potential.
  4. Plausible; within the realm of credibility.
  5. Leading with high probability to some specified outcome.
  6. Attractive; pleasant.
  7. Similar; like; alike.

noun

  1. Something or somebody considered likely.

adverb

  1. Probably.
  2. Similarly.

Etymology

From Middle English likely, likly, lykly, likliche, from Old English ġelīclīċ (“suitable”) and Old Norse líkligr (“likely”) (probably independent formations), equivalent to like + -ly (adjectival suffix).

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “likely” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.