properly

UK/ˈpɹɒpəli/US/ˈpɹɑpɚli/

adverbB12 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #2,092 of 15,258neutral

Properly means in the correct and complete way. Do it properly, properly cooked, not properly closed.

In British English it is also an intensifier meaning thoroughly or genuinely: properly cold, properly funny, properly lost. That use is common in speech and rare in writing. Note proper, which in British informal speech means real or complete — a proper meal, a proper mess; and properly speaking, which introduces a pedantic correction and is usually right.

Definitions of properly

1adverbproperlyIn the correct and complete way.B1
“The door has never closed properly since the frame moved.”
synonyms: correctly, thoroughly
2adverbgenuinelyGenuinely or thoroughly, used for emphasis.B2
“It was properly cold by about four in the afternoon.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

properly is a manner of correctness.

Also accepted in games: correctly

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*preyH-
Anglo-Norman
propre
Middle English
propre
English
proper
English, today
properly

From proper + -ly. proper comes from Middle English propre, from Anglo-Norman propre. From Middle English propre, from Anglo-Norman proper, propre, Old French propre (French: propre), from Latin proprius.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Everyday Adjectives

Practise this word

properly in the wild

Alvin Plantinga argued that belief in God is a properly basic belief, and so no basis for belief in God is necessary.
Reformed epistemology
To properly perform the rituals in the present day, modern pagans must discover how and why they were performed in the past.
Polytheistic reconstructionism
When properly dressed, the two strands do not cross each other.
Flemish bend
Osborn argued that he had never been properly served with the order but still had to return the money.
Osborn v. Bank of the United States
A goitre can be associated with a thyroid that is not functioning properly.
Goitre

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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 propre family

proper properly

properly — used about once every 259 pages · #2,092 · point at the bar for the others

property

Definitions of properly

1adverbproperlyIn the correct and complete way.B1

“The door has never closed properly since the frame moved.”

synonyms: correctly, thoroughly

2adverbgenuinelyGenuinely or thoroughly, used for emphasis.B2

“It was properly cold by about four in the afternoon.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

properly is a manner of correctness.

Also accepted in games: correctly