comparatively

UK/kəmˈpæɹ.ə.tɪvli/US/kəmˈpæɹ.ə.tɪvli/

adverbB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,267 of 15,258mostly written

Comparatively means when set beside something else. Better or worse than that, rather than good or bad in itself.

It is a hedge, and it does the same job as relatively, so comparatively cheap means cheap for what it is rather than cheap outright. It usually sits before an adjective. The word is useful precisely because it refuses to make an absolute claim, which is also why careful readers ask compared with what. The adjective comparative and the noun comparison belong with it.

Definitions of comparatively

1adverbcomparativelyIn comparison with something else.B2+
“The flat was comparatively cheap for the area.”

Where it comes from

Middle English
comparatif
English
comparative
English, today
comparatively

Built from

comparāre · Latin — to compare

From comparative + -ly. comparative comes from Middle English comparatif. From Middle English comparatif, from Middle French comparatif, from Latin comparātīvus, equivalent to comparātus, from comparāre (“to compare”) + -ive, from Latin -īvus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

comparatively in the wild

Conversely, a highly skilled fielder might have a comparatively low fielding percentage by virtue of reaching, and potentially missing, a greater number of balls.
Fielding percentage
Despite its relatively large physical area, it has a comparatively small population (of less than 1 million people).
Geography of Lincolnshire
European folklore or Western folklore refers to the folklore of the Western world, especially when discussed comparatively.
European folklore
With approximately 200 members it is a comparatively small cluster.
Abell 262

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the comparāre family

compare

comparatively — used about once every 8,568 pages · #11,267 · point at the bar for the others

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