smartly
/ˈsmɑː(ɹ)tli/adverb
smartly is an adverb meaning “With a fine or fashionable appearance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-M-A-R-T-L-Y and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 1 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does smartly mean?
adverb
- 1
With a fine or fashionable appearance.
smartly dressed
- 2
Quickly.
- 3
Intelligently.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce smartly?
- /ˈsmɑː(ɹ)tli/
Smartly has 2 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-smartly.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of smartly
- more smartly comparative
- most smartly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is smartly?
Smartly appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,549th 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).
Where does smartly come from?
From Middle English smertly; equivalent to smart + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).