Likely means there is a good chance of it, enough that you would bet on it. Grey clouds since breakfast, so rain is likely by lunchtime.
Likely takes TO or THAT: she is likely to say no, it is likely that the train will be late. It works as an adverb too, though British speakers keep a most or a very in front of it, as in he will most likely call tonight, where Americans are happy with he will likely call. A likely candidate or a likely spot is a promising one, nothing to do with chance. The noun is likelihood, the opposite is unlikely, and the comparative is either likelier or more likely. And if somebody gives you an excuse you do not believe, the flat British reply is a likely story.
1adjectivelikelyHaving a good chance of happening or of being true.~52%
“A strike now looks likely before the end of the month.”
synonyms: probable, expected
2adjectiveseemingSeeming suitable or promising for a particular purpose.~2%
“The bend under the willow looked a likely place to catch something.”
3adverbprobablyProbably; used with most or very in British English, and on its own in American English.~46%
“She will most likely be home by seven.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 19 sentences found in the wild and placed 19 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: probable
Likely is a Middle English word built from two directions at once: Old English ġelīclīċ, meaning suitable, and Old Norse líkligr, meaning likely, which look like separate formations of the same pieces. Both are simply like plus -ly. So the literal sense is having the look of something, and that is still what it does: a likely outcome is one that has the look of happening.
Old Norse
líkligr — likely
Old English
ġelīclīċ — suitable
Middle English
likely
English, today
likely
From Middle English likely, likly, lykly, likliche, from Old English ġelīclīċ (“suitable”) and Old Norse líkligr (“likely”) (probably independent formations), equivalent to like + -ly.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA