formidably
/ˈfɔːɹ.mɪ.dəb.li/adverb
formidably is an adverb meaning “In a formidable manner” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-O-R-M-I-D-A-B-L-Y and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 16 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does formidably mean?
adverb
- 1
In a formidable manner.
But the Inspector was made of stern stuff. He closed his right hand and with the resulting fist pounded formidably on the bronze.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce formidably?
- /ˈfɔːɹ.mɪ.dəb.li/
- /fɔːɹˈmɪd.əb.li/
Formidably has 4 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-formidably.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of formidably
- more formidably comparative
- most formidably superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is formidably?
Formidably appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th 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).
Formidably in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense in a formidable manner:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | formidavelmente |
| Spanish | formidablemente |
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 formidably come from?
From Latin formīdō (“to fear, dread”) + -ably.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).