improbably

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English improbable

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 improbably

From improbable + -ly.

Adverb

improbably (comparative more improbably, superlative most improbably)

1. In an improbable manner; without probability.
   • 2012, William Matthews, The Tragedy of Arthur‎^[1], University of California Press, page 68:

     […] and two enormous Scottish poems, the Buik of Alexander, which has been improbably ascribed to Barbour, and Sir Gilbert Hay's Buik of Alexander the Conquerour; one nearly complete Prose Life of Alexander and fragments of four others; a stanzaic translation of the Fuerres de Gadres which survives only in a fragment, the Romance of Cassamus, and three separate translations of the Secreta Secretorum.

Antonyms

• probably

Translations

in an improbable manner

• Catalan: improbablement (ca)
• Czech: nepravděpodobně
• French: invraisemblablement (fr), improbablement (fr)
• German: unwahrscheinlich (de)
• Italian: in modo improbabile
• Polish: nieprawdopodobnie (pl)
• Portuguese: improvavelmente
• Spanish: improbablemente (es)
• Volapük: neluveratiko

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “improbably”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.