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PlainSpell

barely

bare·ly/ˈbɛɹ.li/adverb

barely is spelled B-A-R-E-L-Y, 2 syllables: bare·ly. The wrong spelling people search most is bearly: about 300 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Barely is an adverb meaning “By a small margin”.

How many letters and syllables are in barely?

Letters6: B-A-R-E-L-Y
Syllables2: bare·ly
In writing31 times per million words; the 3,052nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, bearly, about 300 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell barely?

Barely is spelled B-A-R-E-L-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for barely in either form.

barelythe right spelling2,430 searches a month
bearlyan extra e, a missing e300 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is barely?

Barely appears 31 times per million words in written English, the 3,052nd 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).

How do you pronounce barely?

  • UK /ˈbɛə.li/
  • British /ˈbɛːlɪj/
  • US /ˈbɛɹ.li/

Barely has 2 syllables, split bare·ly in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-barely.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-barely.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Grendelkhan-barely.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with barely?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as barely from its last stressed vowel (/ɛɹli/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: barley, bleary, bearly.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of barely

  • more barely comparative
  • most barely superlative

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

What does barely mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adverb

  1. 1

    By a small margin.

    I barely completed my homework. However, I got a score of 5 for it.

  2. 2

    Almost not at all.

    The plane is so far away now I can barely see it.

  3. 3

    Recently, just now.

    I barely got to the store.

  4. 4

    archaicMerely.

  5. 5

    rareOpenly, clearly, plainly.

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

Barely in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchà peine (by a small margin)
Germankaum (by a small margin), gerade noch (almost not at all)
Portugueseapenas (by a small margin), mal (almost not at all)
Spanishapenas, malavés, malavez, aína, con las justas, por poco (by a small margin)

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 barely come from?

From Middle English baarly, bareliche, barely, barly, from Old English bærlīċe, equivalent to bare + -ly. Compare Danish bare (“only, just”), Norwegian bare (“only, just”).

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

What to look up after barely