gradually

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English gradual

Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der.

Proto-Germanic *līkąder.

Proto-Germanic *-līkaz

Proto-Germanic *-ê

Proto-Germanic *-līkê

Proto-West Germanic *-līkē

Old English -līċe

Middle English -ly

English -ly

English gradually

From gradual + -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuəli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: grad‧u‧al‧ly

Adverb

gradually (comparative more gradually, superlative most gradually)

1. In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.
   • 2014 September 29, Douglas Quenqua, “Toolmaking May Have Risen Independently”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 1 October 2014:

     The most likely conclusion, the researchers say, is that the Levallois method was not taken to Eurasia by African migrants, but evolved there gradually and independently.

   • 2021 January 5, Peter Foster, “Peter Foster: Sustainable Newspeak by 2050”, in Financial Post‎^[2], archived from the original on 31 March 2021:

     The instrument of this dumbing down in Nineteen Eighty-Four was Newspeak, the official language of the English Socialist Party (Ingsoc). Newspeak was a sort of Totalitarian Esperanto that sought gradually to diminish the range of what was thinkable by eliminating, contracting and manufacturing words.

2. (obsolete) By degrees.
   • 1682, Nehemiah Grew, The Anatomy of Plants. […], [London]: […] W. Rawlins, for the author, published 1682, →OCLC:

     Horns, upon the due accession of Moisture, doth gradually become Soft.

Synonyms

• (making slow progress): ponderously, sluggishly; See also Thesaurus:slowly
• (by degrees): incrementally, step by step, See also Thesaurus:gradually

Derived terms

• gradually typed

Translations

in gradual manner — see also bit by bit

• Arabic: شَيْئاً فَشَيْئاً (šayʔan fašayʔan), خُطْوةً فَخُطْوةً (ḵuṭwatan faḵuṭwatan), تَدْرِيجِيّاً (tadrījiyyan), على تدريج (ʕalā tadrīj)

  North Levantine Arabic: معو معو (maʕu maʕu), شوي شوي (šway šway)

• Armenian: աստիճանաբար (hy) (astičanabar)
• Azerbaijani: tədricən
• Belarusian: паступо́ва (pastupóva)
• Bulgarian: постепенно (bg) (postepenno)
• Catalan: gradualment (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 逐漸 / 逐渐 (zh) (zhújiàn), 漸漸 / 渐渐 (zh) (jiànjiàn), 漸次 / 渐次 (zh) (jiàncì)

• Czech: postupně (cs)
• Danish: gradvis
• Dutch: geleidelijk (nl), allengs (nl), gaandeweg (nl), langzamerhand (nl)
• Esperanto: grade, malabrupte
• Finnish: asteittain (fi), vähitellen (fi)
• French: progressivement (fr)
• Galician: gradualmente
• German: nach und nach (de), allmählich (de), stufenweise (de), schrittweise (de)
• Greek: βαθμιαία (el) (vathmiaía), σταδιακά (el) (stadiaká)
• Hanunoo: amat-amat
• Hungarian: fokozatosan (hu)
• Italian: gradualmente (it)
• Japanese: 段々と (ja) (だんだんと, dandan to), 徐々に (ja) (じょじょに, jojo ni), 次第に (ja) (しだいに, shidai ni)
• Korean: 점점 (ko) (jeomjeom), 점차 (ko) (jeomcha), 서서히 (ko) (seoseohi)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: وردە وردە (wirde wirde)

• Latin: paulātim, gradātim
• Macedonian: постепено (postepeno)
• Manchu: ᡠᠯᡥᡳᠶᡝᠨ (ulhiyen), ᡠᠯᡥᡳᠶᡝᠨ
  ᡠᠯᡥᡳᠶᡝᠨ ᡳ (ulhiyen ulhiyen-i)
• Middle English: esiliche
• Navajo: tąądee
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: etter hvert (no), gradvis, litt etter litt

  Nynorsk: etter kvart

• Plautdietsch: aulmälich
• Polish: stopniowo (pl), krok po kroku (pl)
• Portuguese: gradualmente (pt), pouco a pouco (pt)
• Romanian: treptat (ro), în mod gradat, progresiv (ro), în mod treptat
• Russian: постепе́нно (ru) (postepénno)
• Scottish Gaelic: mean air mhean
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̀степено

  Latin: pòstepeno (sh)

• Slovak: postupne
• Slovene: postopoma
• Spanish: gradualmente (es), paulatinamente (es)
• Swedish: gradvis (sv)
• Ukrainian: поступо́во (postupóvo), пово́лі (povóli)
• Vietnamese: dần dần (vi)
• Zhuang: menhmenh