Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Possessing or displaying the qualities or characteristics that make something probable: They are likely to become angry with him.
- adj. Within the realm of credibility; plausible: not a very likely excuse.
- adj. Apparently appropriate or suitable: There were several likely candidates for the job.
- adj. Apt to achieve success or yield a desired outcome; promising: a likely topic for investigation.
- adj. Attractive; pleasant: found a likely spot under a shady tree for the picnic.
- adv. Usage Problem Probably.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Similar; congenial; kindred.
- That may be suitable; preferred for a particular reason or purpose; fit or adapted, or giving promise of being so: as, a likely subject for satire.
- Having likeness to truth; that seems or that may be true; credible; probable: as, a likely story.
- Hence Within the limits of probability; having a tendency; so situated or constituted that he or it will probably be or do something indicated: followed by an infinitive.
- Liable to happen or come about; in prospect or expectation.
- Such as may be liked; likable; pleasing; agreeable; commendable; promising; good.
- Synonyms Apt, Likely, etc. See apt.
- Probably; as may reasonably be supposed.
Wiktionary
- adj. probable; having a greater-than-even chance of occurring
- adj. probable; Possessing or displaying the qualities or characteristics that make something probable
- adj. appropriate, suitable; believable; having a good potential
- adj. plausible; Within the realm of credibility
- adj. promising; Apt to achieve success or yield a desired outcome
- adj. attractive; pleasant.
- adj. Reasonably to be expected; apparently destined.
- adv. obsolete Similarly.
- adv. Probably.
- n. Something or somebody considered likely.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Worthy of belief; probable; credible.
- adj. Having probability; having or giving reason to expect; -- followed by the infinitive.
- adj. obsolete Similar; like; alike.
- adj. Such as suits; good-looking; pleasing; agreeable; handsome.
- adj. Having such qualities as make success probable; well adapted to the place; promising.
- adj. informal Improbable; unlikely; -- used ironically.
- adv. In all probability; probably.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. has a good chance of being the case or of coming about
- adj. expected to become or be; in prospect
- adv. with considerable certainty; without much doubt
- adj. within the realm of credibility
- adj. likely but not certain to be or become true or real
Etymologies
- From Old Norse líkligr, from líkr ("like, similar"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English likly, from Old English gelīclīc (from gelīc, similar) and from Old Norse līkligr (from līkr, similar); see līk- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The banks that took care of their own loans wound up, long term, in a situation that was likely to be better; but only _likely_ some localities had bad luck, some banks got hit by other factors, and only if they actually were better at managing their localloans.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Repeating the Mistakes of the Mortgage Crisis
“If anything, that it was sold in stores and was *nevertheless* “likely” to prevail on a fair use defense, indicates to me that the same thing posted on a web page as fanfic would be *even more likely* to be fair use.”
“He'll be doing his term likely in Yazoo City, Mississippi, which is near his home.”
“American Idol' auditions in Pittsburgh reveal one heck of a belter: Erika Van Pelt Reid Grimm impresses, and Travis Delgado and Holly Day wow them with big sob stories Jim Farber / DAILY NEWS MUSIC CRITIC Steven Tyler on "American Idol" Thursday, a phrase likely to resonate quite a ways down the "Idol" line.”
“Newt Gingrich, out for revenge after being on the receiving end of a $4m £2.6m advertising battering from Romney in Iowa, did not hold back, accusing him of lying, being unelectable and, in a phrase likely to be remembered long after the campaign is over, of talking "pious baloney".”
“Natalee Holloway is a name likely to haunt a generation of U.S. parents.”
“Leading the Huskers to the title likely would've been enough to boost Frazier over George, whose Buckeyes lost to Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl.”
“Rhimes: I don't know about the word "likely" possibly the last.”
Grey's Anatomy: Shonda Rhimes Talks Mer-Der's Struggle, Cristina's Pregnancy
“No deals for Braves; no NL East title likely is the next entry in this blog.”
“That they borrowed this term likely is suggestive of what happens when communities move into new climate regimes, which is just what proto-West Ruvu speakers did when they moved westward to the two-rain-season environment in the interior.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘likely’.
-
EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
words i love
fuss, rhythm, obfuscate, sumptuous, decadence, ethereal, peach, stingy, muscle, wrapper, corpus, dastardly deed and 90 more...
-
Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
-
1
hypomania, hypomanic, complementary, deem, problematic, volatile, mercurial, unaccompanied, counterpart, irritability, hyperthymia, violent and 130 more...
-
quirks of grammar
Particularly interesting grammatical quirks.
Yes, I said interesting. Who are you looking at so strangely?likely, must, rumoured, stride, there's, try, word, bush, hamstring, let's, 's, sheep and 4 more...
-
March 6th
Words from an article taken from the Economist
curb, overwhelmed, suppressing, government, chart, fuelled, pumping, ruinous, chauvinist, likely, fleeced, loose and 4 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for likely.
qroqqa In BrE this has the peculiar grammatical property that as an adverb it can't occur on its own: it has to be premodified by another adverb. So we can say that it will very/quite/more likely happen tomorrow, but not that *it will likely happen tomorrow. The latter is of course normal in AmE. As an adjective there's no such restriction: it is likely to happen, and it is very/quite/more likely to happen.
Whereas 'probably' behaves quite normally: it will probably happen. Sep 2, 2008