briefly
/ˈbɹiːfli/adverb
briefly is spelled B-R-I-E-F-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is breifly: about 130 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Briefly is an adverb meaning “In a brief manner, summarily”.
How many letters and syllables are in briefly?
| Letters | 7: B-R-I-E-F-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 17 times per million words; the 4,934th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, breifly, about 130 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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).
How do you spell briefly?
Briefly is spelled B-R-I-E-F-L-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for briefly in either form.
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 briefly?
Briefly appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th 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 briefly?
- /ˈbɹiːfli/
Briefly 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: En-us-briefly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of briefly
- more briefly comparative
- most briefly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does briefly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
In a brief manner, summarily.
He covered the subject briefly in his book.
- 2
For a brief period.
He only worked here briefly.
- 3
To be brief, in short.
Briefly, I am not happy about what happened, but no one will be losing their job.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Briefly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense in a brief manner:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | brièvement, concisément |
| German | kurz |
| Spanish | concisamente, brevemente |
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 briefly come from?
From Middle English breefly, breffly, brevely, brevelike, breveliche, equivalent to brief + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).