seriously
adverbtop 1 000 in film dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈsɪə.ɹi.əs.li//
- United Kingdom//ˈsɪə.ɹəs.li//
- United States//ˈsɪɹ.i.əs.li//
- United States//ˈsiɹ.i.əs.li//
In a serious or literal manner.
adverb
- 1
In a serious or literal manner.
He was hoping that we would take him seriously.
Jimmy jokingly called Bob a doofus. Bob took the insult seriously.
“I’ll qualify the statement, then,” she answered, with a laugh. “We have known each other for two ages—hers and mine. But seriously we are as dear to each other as sisters, and now that I am going to lose her I am almost heartbroken.”
Masters and Johnson wanted their work to be taken seriously, and wanted to stay a step ahead of the morality police, so they tended to write in almost comically dense medicalese.
- 2
Gravely; deeply; very much.
That was a seriously unpleasant thing to say.
- 3
Used to attempt to introduce a serious point in a less serious conversation.
Now, seriously, why did you forget to feed the cat today?
- 4
Used to call back to a previous point, in disbelief or for emphasis.
You baked ten (10) cakes. Seriously, why did you do that?
- 5
informalIn an extreme or major way; majorly.
Unless you're seriously strapped (armed), you're about to be not okay too.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-rós Proto-Italic *sēros Latin sērus Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius ? Proto-Indo-European *swer- Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Italic *swerjos? Latin sērius Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ŏ̄dsos? Old Latin -ōssus Latin -ōsus Medieval Latin sēriōsus Old French serieuxbor. Middle English seryows Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -lech, -ly Middle English seryowslech English seriously From Middle English seriously, sereously, ceryously, seryowslech (“earnestly”), equivalent to serious + -ly.
Forms
- comparative
- more seriously
- superlative
- most seriously