dropwise
adverb, adjective
dropwise is an adverb meaning “In drops; one drop at a time” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled D-R-O-P-W-I-S-E, and it appears about once in every 48 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does dropwise mean?
adverb
- 1
In drops; one drop at a time.
adjective
- 1
One drop at a time.
dropwise addition
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is dropwise?
Dropwise appears about once in every 48 million words in written English, the 214,628th 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).
Dropwise in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense one drop at a time:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | tropfenweise, Tropfen für Tropfen |
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 dropwise come from?
From drop + -wise.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).