Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. With confidence; unhesitatingly.
- adv. Undoubtedly; certainly: You surely can't be serious.
- adv. Without fail: Slowly but surely spring returns.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Certainly; infallibly; undoubtedly; assuredly: often used, like doubtless, in a manner implying doubt or question.
- Firmly; stably; safely; securely.
Wiktionary
- adv. without fail.
- adv. certainly, undoubtedly.
- adv. with confidence.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. In a sure or certain manner; certainly; infallibly; undoubtedly; assuredly.
- adv. Without danger; firmly; steadly; securely.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. definitely or positively (`sure' is sometimes used informally for `surely')
Etymologies
- sure + -ly (Wiktionary)
Examples
“There was a wife and a little, little baby, "Oh, _so_ little!" far up on the mountain-side; they would starve; surely, _surely_ they would starve!”
“Oh, surely, _surely_ now, some ship will sight it and come in!" proclaimed Jean, as she turned to scan the sea, her face alight with the faith inspired by the faded colors.”
“But to him the title surely belongs; and there is no competent judge, who, when made aware of the great talents and acquisitions, theoretical and practical, of Mr. Lewis in the science of music, will not cheerfully accord it to him.”
“Another title surely beckons at the European Indoor Championships in Paris in March.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“And finally Atalanta who I think will already be relegated. there are still three matches left. why have roma already conceded the title. players with tears, all round despondency is not going to help them. if they want to win the title surely they need to be mentally stronger”
“This surely is the measure of ‘lifeness’ and indeed great fiction: the amount of blood the reader and character share.”
“If they are then, in a reverse of this situation, enabled to declare their London home as their principal home for Tax purposes, this surely is a feathering of the nest which, whilst lawful at the moment, ought to be abolished right away.”
“It Could Happen to You" (changed from "Cop Gives Waitress $2 Million Tip," the new title surely plays on "It Should Happen to You," George Cukor's lovely, little-known 1954 comedy) is shamelessly old-fashioned: it shouldn't float, but it does.”
“After the publication of her second short story collection, Crucial Instances, Wharton received what she termed surely one of the tersest and most vigorous letters ever penned by an amateur critic.”
“This surely is the ultimate absurdity of the permissive society because it leads directly and inexorably to chaos and the rule of the jungle!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘surely’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
wrath, leaf, belly, prey, death, break, six, nod, dim, end, inn, judge and 1286 more...
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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exemplifying
above all, chiefly, with attention to, especially, particularly, singularly, primacy, primarily, for instance, in particular, markedly, namely, and 42 more...
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words
my words. my mind. my gosh.
try not to enjoy it too much.git, ghoti, sauce, quail, querulous, quarrelsome, reliability, untoward, incongruities, fission, fanatic, apple and 206 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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Words with Method to their Madness
Patterned words! Any word that alternates vowels and consonants with no consonants next to each other, and no vowels next to each other. (And a letter limit of no less than 5)
eleven, every, vowel, lemon, alibi, hopes, limit, cures, caravan, emirate, united arab emirates, honorificabilitud... and 114 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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TN9 Lesson 108
achievement, Australia, bartender, comfort, confuse, design, dishonest, frustrating, grateful, ignorance, internet, invention and 19 more...
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HGard's Words
elucidate, episiotomy, aggro, slurpee, sack of potatoes, prolific, itsy bitsy, armageddon, really, certainly, surely, maybe and 28 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for surely.
sionnach Surely you can't mean that, jmp? Jul 25, 2008
johnmperry When I was at school, our headmaster told us never to agree with a question which used the word 'surely' Jul 25, 2008
sonofgroucho I loved that film! Dec 7, 2007
oroboros "Don't call me Shirley!" Jan 12, 2007