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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chiefly.

Especially or primarily; above all.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adv/ˈtʃiːf.li/UK
  1. Especially or primarily; above all.

    focus
    Their relationship is chiefly professional.
    This is a term chiefly used by online gamers.
  2. Mainly or principally; almost entirely.

    focus
Where this word comes from

From Middle English chefly; equivalent to chief + -ly (adverbial suffix).

adj/ˈtʃiːf.li/UK
  1. Of or relating to a chief.

Where this word comes from

From chief + -ly (adjectival suffix). Piecewise doublet of chefly and headly.

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chiefly studiochiefly workshello, chiefly

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.