hesitantly
adverb
hesitantly is spelled H-E-S-I-T-A-N-T-L-Y: 10 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,788th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adverb, hesitantly means “With hesitation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in hesitantly?
| Letters | 10: H-E-S-I-T-A-N-T-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 56,788th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is hesitantly?
Hesitantly appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 56,788th 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 hesitantly?
Hesitantly 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).
Forms of hesitantly
- more hesitantly comparative
- most hesitantly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hesitantly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
With hesitation.
Grigory hesitantly took her in his arms to kiss her, but she held him off, bent supply backwards and shot a frightened glance at the windows. 'They'll see!' 'Let them!' 'I'd be ashamed–'
- 2
With reluctance.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).