highly
adverbcommon in dialogue
- //ˈhaɪli//
In a high or esteemed manner.
adverb
- 1
In a high or esteemed manner.
He spoke highly of you.
Highly placed officials who denied the story
- 2
Extremely; greatly; very much.
He is in a highly visible job.
The book was highly controversial yet sold unbelievably well.
There are those who value a seat sufficiently highly that they prefer to make their daily journeys by the Western Region Vine Street line.
Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.
Etymology
From Middle English hiȝly, heȝly, heyȝliche, from Old English hēalīce (“highly”), equivalent to high + -ly. Cognate with Dutch hoogelijk (“highly”), German höchlich (“highly”), Danish højlig (“highly”), Swedish högligen (“highly”).
Forms
- comparative
- highlier, more highly
- superlative
- highliest, most highly