truly
/ˈtɹuːli/adverb
truly is spelled T-R-U-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is truely: about 1,230 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Truly is an adverb meaning “In accordance with the facts; truthfully, accurately”.
How many letters and syllables are in truly?
| Letters | 5: T-R-U-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 74 times per million words; the 1,427th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, truely, about 1,230 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 truly?
Truly is spelled T-R-U-L-Y. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for truly 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 truly?
Truly appears 74 times per million words in written English, the 1,427th 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 truly?
- /ˈtɹuːli/
Truly 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-truly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of truly
- trulier comparative
- more truly comparative
- truliest superlative
- most truly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does truly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
In accordance with the facts; truthfully, accurately.
- 2
Honestly, genuinely, in fact, really.
That is truly all I know.
- 3
Very.
You are truly silly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Truly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | vraiment |
| German | wirklich, wahrhaft , ehrlich , echt |
| Portuguese | verdadeiramente, corretamente , realmente |
| Spanish | verdaderamente, veramente |
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 truly come from?
From Middle English truely, treuly, treuli, trewely, treoweliche, treowliche, from Old English trēowlīċe (“faithfully; truly”), equivalent to true + -ly. Cognate with Dutch trouwelijk, Middle Low German truwlike, German treulich, Swedish trolig, Icelandic trygglega.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).