smoothly

UK/ˈsmuːðli/US/ˈsmuːðli/

adverbB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,055 of 15,258neutral

Smoothly means evenly and without any trouble. Run smoothly, went smoothly, speak smoothly.

Applied to a person it turns critical — talking smoothly suggests polish covering something. Applied to a process it is simple praise. Everything went smoothly is the standard report when there is nothing to report.

Definitions of smoothly

1adverbsmoothlyEvenly and without any trouble.B2
“The engine runs smoothly now that the mechanic has fixed it.”

smoothly is a manner.

Where it comes from

Smooth plus -ly, from Old English smoth, of uncertain further origin.

Middle English
smoþely
English, today
smoothly

From Middle English smoþely; equivalent to smooth + ly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

smoothly in the wild

At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral mixing, and adjacent layers slide past one another smoothly.
Laminar flow
The intended result is to create the illusion of movement by smoothly transitioning one image into another.
Inbetweening
The pointed end of the tool should be kept sharp so that the burr is cut out smoothly.
Pritchel
Nonetheless, the event passed smoothly, marked by the visit of both Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, and the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.
2005 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
Below 30 degrees of latitude, impact craters have steep walls; well-defined, sharp rims; and flat or smoothly bowl-shaped floors.
Terrain softening

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

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