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temporarily

UK/ˈtɛmp(ə)r(ər)ɪli/US/ˌtɛmpəˈɹɛɹəli/
adverbB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,910 of 15,258leans written

Temporarily means for a short while only. Temporarily closed, temporarily out of stock, temporarily housed.

It is the standard word on a sign, and everybody has learned to read it with suspicion, since a shop temporarily closed can stay shut for years. Families are temporarily housed by councils for months at a time, which stretches the word past breaking.

Definitions of temporarily

  1. 1adverbtemporarilyFor a short while only.B2

    “The road is temporarily closed while workers repair the bridge.”

temporarily is a duration.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *temh₁-

  2. Latin

    temporarius

  3. English

    temporary

  4. English, today

    temporarily

Built from

  • tempus · Latin — time

From temporary + -ly. temporary Borrowed from Latin temporarius, from tempus (“time”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

temporarily in the wild

  • Typically, it implies that they are temporarily or permanently incapable of bearing arms or continuing to fight.

    Wounded in action

  • In Ukrainian law, they are defined as the "temporarily occupied territories".

    Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine

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 tempus family

temporarytempertense

temporarily — used about once every 729 pages · #3,910 · point at the bar for the others