surely

US/ˈʃʊɹli/

adverbB12 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,180 of 15,258mostly spoken

Surely means certainly, or is used to show you expect agreement. Surely not, surely you agree, slowly but surely.

As a sentence adverb it is an appeal rather than a statement: surely he knew signals that the speaker thinks it obvious and is checking. In American use it can mean certainly outright. Slowly but surely means steadily and reliably. Note sure; and that the word came from the French for safe, from Latin securus.

Definitions of surely

1adverbsurelyUsed to show you expect agreement.B1
“Surely you're not going out in this rain without a coat?”
2adverbcertainlyCertainly and reliably.B2
“If you keep ignoring the leak, the damage will surely get worse.”

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

surely is a marker of confidence.

Where it comes from

Sure plus -ly, from Old French seur, from Latin securus, safe. Secure comes from the same safety.

Middle English
surely
English, today
surely

From Middle English surely; equivalent to sure + -ly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

surely in the wild

In probability theory, the terms almost surely, almost certain and almost always refer to events with probability 1 not necessarily including all of the outcomes.
Almost everywhere
Almost never describes the opposite of almost surely: an event that happens with probability zero happens almost never.
Almost surely
A standing Saracen army was created to prevent the king from having to call up the unreliable barons, surely angered by the Constitutions.
Constitutions of Melfi
While arguing for a bill, Roche once said, "It would surely be better, Mr.
Boyle Roche
The choice of a blind hero was surely informed by David's 1780 Blind Belisarius.
Jean-Antoine-Théodore Giroust

1 / 2

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.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

Definitions of surely

1adverbsurelyUsed to show you expect agreement.B1

“Surely you're not going out in this rain without a coat?”

2adverbcertainlyCertainly and reliably.B2

“If you keep ignoring the leak, the damage will surely get worse.”

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

surely is a marker of confidence.