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PlainSpell

readily

/ˈɹɛdɪli/adverb

readily is an adverb meaning “Without unwillingness or hesitation; showing readiness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-A-D-I-L-Y and has 3 syllables, and it appears 8.5 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does readily mean?

adverb

  1. 1

    Without unwillingness or hesitation; showing readiness.

    The suspect readily answered all questions the police officers asked him.

  2. 2

    Without impediment, easily.

    readily available; readily achievable

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce readily?

  • /ˈɹɛdɪli/

Readily has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-readily.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of readily

  • readilier comparative
  • more readily comparative
  • readiliest superlative
  • most readily superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is readily?

Readily appears 8.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,910th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Readily in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfacilement, volontiers (showing readiness), aisément (easily)
Germanbereitwillig (showing readiness), ohne Schwierigkeiten, problemlos (easily)
Portugueseprontamente (showing readiness)
Spanishfácilmente, en seguida, pronto (showing readiness)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does readily come from?

From Middle English redily, rediliche. By surface analysis, read(i) + -ly.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).