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gradually

UK/ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuəli/US/ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuəli/
adverbB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,015 of 15,258leans written

Gradually means slowly, by small steps over time. Gradually improved, gradually got worse, gradually at first.

It is one of the commonest adverbs in English and is used constantly in medicine, weather and description of change. Gradually, then suddenly is the well-known formula for how things go bankrupt and how people fall in love, from Hemingway. Note gradual; and that gradually properly implies steps rather than merely slowness.

Definitions of gradually

  1. 1adverbgraduallySlowly, by small steps over time.B2

    “The snow gradually melted as the days grew warmer.”

gradually is a manner of slow change.

Also accepted in games: little by little

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *gʰradʰ-

  2. Latin

    gradus — step

  3. Medieval Latin

    graduālis

  4. English

    gradual

  5. English, today

    gradually

Built from

  • *gʰredʰ- · Proto-Indo-European — to walk, go

From gradual + -ly. gradual comes from Medieval Latin graduālis, from Latin gradus (“step”), from Proto-Indo-European gʰradʰ-, gʰredʰ- (“to walk, go”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌹𐌸𐍃 (“step, grade”), bar Gritt (“step, stride”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Adjectives

Practise this word

gradually in the wild

  • Ships and service craft disposed of prior to 1987 are not included, but are gradually being added along with other updates.

    Naval Vessel Register

  • The main backbone connections have gradually been upgraded to optical fiber since 2008.

    FUNET

  • Trail braking is a driving and motorcycle riding technique where the brakes are used beyond the entrance to a turn (turn-in), and then gradually released (trailed off).

    Trail braking

  • Computer simulations indicate that these two black holes will gradually spiral in toward each other until they merge.

    NGC 1128

  • The speakers of Kazukuru gradually merged with the Roviana people from the sixteenth century onward and adopted Roviana as their language.

    Kazukuru language

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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 gradus family

gradedegreegraduategraduation

gradually — used about once every 1,710 pages · #6,015 · point at the bar for the others