loosely
loose·ly/ˈluːsli/adverb
loosely is spelled L-O-O-S-E-L-Y, 2 syllables: loose·ly. The wrong spelling people search most is loosly: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Loosely is an adverb meaning “In a loose manner”.
How many letters and syllables are in loosely?
| Letters | 7: L-O-O-S-E-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: loose·ly |
| In writing | 4.2 times per million words; the 12,578th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, loosly, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 loosely?
Loosely is spelled L-O-O-S-E-L-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for loosely 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 loosely?
Loosely appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th 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 loosely?
- /ˈluːsli/
Loosely has 2 syllables, split loose·ly in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-loosely.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of loosely
- more loosely comparative
- most loosely superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does loosely mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
In a loose manner.
- 2
Not tightly.
Insert all the bolts loosely, then tighten them.
- 3
Approximately.
It's red, to use the term loosely, sort of brown and sort of orange, let's call it reddish.
- 4
Used to indicate an imprecise use of words; short for loosely speaking
A whale is, loosely, maybe very loosely, a fish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Loosely in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sans serrer |
| Portuguese | vagamente |
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 loosely come from?
From Middle English lously; equivalent to loose + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).