mostly
/ˈmoʊstli/adverb
mostly is spelled M-O-S-T-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is mosty: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 15 of all searches for the word. Mostly is an adverb meaning “Mainly or chiefly; for the most part; usually, generally, on the whole”.
How many letters and syllables are in mostly?
| Letters | 6: M-O-S-T-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 68 times per million words; the 1,562nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, mosty, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell mostly?
Mostly is spelled M-O-S-T-L-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 15 of the searches for mostly 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 mostly?
Mostly appears 68 times per million words in written English, the 1,562nd 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 mostly?
- UK /ˈməʊstli/
- US /ˈmoʊstli/
- US /ˈmoʊsli/
Mostly 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-mostly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with mostly?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mostly from its last stressed vowel (/oʊstli/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of mostly
- mostlie
- moastly
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mostly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
Mainly or chiefly; for the most part; usually, generally, on the whole.
They're mostly good people, although they have made a few mistakes.
- 2
obsoleteTo the greatest extent; most.
- 3
IndiaproscribedSynonym of probably, likely.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mostly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense for the most part:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | surtout, majoritairement |
| German | meistens, überwiegend, weitgehend, größtenteils, zumeist |
| Portuguese | sobretudo, principalmente, normalmente |
| Spanish | más que nada, en su mayoría |
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 mostly come from?
From most + -ly. The sense “probably” is a calque from Indian languages such as Tamil அனேகமாக (aṉēkamāka).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).