thoroughly
/ˈθʌɹ.ə.li/adverb
thoroughly is spelled T-H-O-R-O-U-G-H-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is thouroughly: about 400 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 15 of all searches for the word. Thoroughly is an adverb meaning “In a thorough or complete manner”.
How many letters and syllables are in thoroughly?
| Letters | 10: T-H-O-R-O-U-G-H-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,138th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, thouroughly, about 400 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 thoroughly?
Thoroughly is spelled T-H-O-R-O-U-G-H-L-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 15 of the searches for thoroughly 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 thoroughly?
Thoroughly appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,138th 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 thoroughly?
- US /ˈθʌɹ.ə.li/
- /ˈθɜɹ.ə.li/
Thoroughly 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: En-us-thoroughly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of thoroughly
- more thoroughly comparative
- most thoroughly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does thoroughly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
In a thorough or complete manner.
He went out in the rain and came back thoroughly drenched.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Thoroughly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense in a thorough or complete manner:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | absolument, complètement |
| German | gründlich, vollkommen, total, durch und durch |
| Portuguese | a fundo, completamente |
| Spanish | cabalmente, a cabalidad, detenidamente, a rajatabla, al cabal |
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 thoroughly come from?
From thorough + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).