highly
/ˈhaɪli/adverb
highly is spelled H-I-G-H-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is higly: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 21 of all searches for the word. Highly is an adverb meaning “In a high or esteemed manner”.
How many letters and syllables are in highly?
| Letters | 6: H-I-G-H-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 78 times per million words; the 1,369th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, higly, about 20 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 highly?
Highly is spelled H-I-G-H-L-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 21 of the searches for highly 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 highly?
Highly appears 78 times per million words in written English, the 1,369th 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 highly?
- /ˈhaɪli/
Highly 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-highly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of highly
- highlier comparative
- more highly comparative
- highliest superlative
- most highly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does highly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
In a high or esteemed manner.
He spoke highly of you.
- 2
Extremely; greatly; very much.
He is in a highly visible job.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Highly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | altamente |
| French | extrêmement |
| German | sehr, extrem |
| Spanish | altamente |
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 highly come from?
From Middle English hiȝly, heȝly, heyȝliche, from Old English hēalīce (“highly”), equivalent to high + -ly. Cognate with Dutch hoogelijk (“highly”), German höchlich (“highly”), Danish højlig (“highly”), Swedish högligen (“highly”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).