hopefully
/ˈhoʊp.fə.li/adverb
hopefully is spelled H-O-P-E-F-U-L-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is hopfully: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 25 of all searches for the word. Hopefully is an adverb meaning “In a hopeful manner”.
How many letters and syllables are in hopefully?
| Letters | 9: H-O-P-E-F-U-L-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 36 times per million words; the 2,669th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, hopfully, about 40 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 hopefully?
Hopefully is spelled H-O-P-E-F-U-L-L-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 15 of the searches for hopefully 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 hopefully?
Hopefully appears 36 times per million words in written English, the 2,669th 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 hopefully?
- UK /ˈhəʊp.fə.li/
- US /ˈhoʊp.fə.li/
Hopefully has 3 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-hopefully.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hopefully
- more hopefully comparative
- most hopefully superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hopefully mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
In a hopeful manner.
- 2
It is hoped that; I hope; we hope.
Hopefully, my father will arrive in time for the show.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hopefully in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | hoffnungsvoll , hoffentlich |
| Portuguese | esperançosamente , tomara, oxalá, Deus te ouça |
| Spanish | esperanzadamente , ojalá (que/y), Dios te oiga, amalaya, quienquita |
| French | avec un peu de chance, en espérant que ... |
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.