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ordinarily

UK/ɔːdɪˈnæɹɪli/US/ɔɹdɪˈnɛɹɪli/
adverbC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,758 of 15,258neutral

Ordinarily means as a rule, in the usual run of things. Ordinarily I would agree, ordinarily resident, ordinarily quiet.

It is nearly always followed by an exception, spoken or implied, which is what it is for. Ordinarily resident is a legal test for who may use a public service, and it means habitually living somewhere rather than merely being there.

Definitions of ordinarily

  1. 1adverbordinarilyAs a rule, in the usual run of things.C1

    “Ordinarily I walk to work, but today it was raining too hard.”

ordinarily is a frequency.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₂er-

  2. Latin

    ōrdinārius — regular, orderly

  3. Medieval Latin

    ordinarius

  4. Middle French

    ordinaire

  5. Anglo-Norman

    ordenarie

  6. English

    ordinary

  7. English, today

    ordinarily

Built from

  • ordo · Latin — order

From ordinary + -ly. ordinary comes from Anglo-Norman ordenarie, ordenaire et al., Middle French ordinaire, and their source, Medieval Latin ordinarius, noun use of Latin ōrdinārius (“regular, orderly”), from ordo (“order”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

ordinarily in the wild

  • The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver.

    Bullion

  • On December 27, 1776, the Continental Congress gave George Washington temporary control over certain military decisions that the Congress ordinarily regarded as its own prerogative.

    Delaware Line

  • On December 27, 1776, the Continental Congress gave Washington temporary control over certain military decisions that the Congress ordinarily regarded as its own prerogative.

    New Hampshire Line

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 ordo family

order

ordinarily — used about once every 1,559 pages · #5,758 · point at the bar for the others