slowly
slow·ly/ˈsloʊli/adverb
slowly is spelled S-L-O-W-L-Y, 2 syllables: slow·ly. The wrong spelling people search most is slowy: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 52 of all searches for the word. Slowly is an adverb meaning “At a slow pace”.
How many letters and syllables are in slowly?
| Letters | 6: S-L-O-W-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: slow·ly |
| In writing | 43 times per million words; the 2,339th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, slowy, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell slowly?
Slowly is spelled S-L-O-W-L-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 52 of the searches for slowly 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 slowly?
Slowly appears 43 times per million words in written English, the 2,339th 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 slowly?
- UK /ˈsləʊli/
- /ˈslaːli/
- US /ˈsloʊli/
Slowly has 2 syllables, split slow·ly in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-slowly.ogg, En-us-slowly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with slowly?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as slowly from its last stressed vowel (/oʊli/):
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 slowly
- slowlier comparative
- more slowly comparative
- slowliest superlative
- most slowly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does slowly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
At a slow pace.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Slowly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense at a slow pace:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | lentement |
| German | langsam |
| Portuguese | devagar, lentamente, vagarosamente |
| Spanish | lentamente, despacio, con despacio, despacito |
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 slowly come from?
From Middle English slowly, slowli, slouli, slowliche, from Old English slāwlīċe (“slowly; sluggishly”), equivalent to slow + -ly. Compare Old Norse slæliga, sljóliga.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).