mightily

English

WOTD – 6 November 2025

Etymology

From Middle English mightili (“with might, powerfully, strongly; forcefully, violently; greatly; etc.”),[1] from Old English meahtiglice (“with might, powerfully, mightily”),[2] from meahtiġ, mihtiġ (“powerful, mighty”) + -līċe (suffix forming adverbs). Mihtiġ is derived from Proto-Germanic *mahtīgaz (“mighty”), from *mahtiz (“force, strength; ability, power”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ- (“to be able”)) + *-gaz (suffix with the sense ‘being; doing; having’ forming adjectives). By surface analysis, mighty +‎ -ly (suffix forming adverbs).[3]

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmaɪtɪli/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmaɪtɪli/, [-ɾɪ-]
  • Audio (General American); [ˈmaɪɾɪli]:(file)
    (file)
  • Homophone: Maithili
  • Hyphenation: might‧i‧ly

Adverb

mightily (comparative more mightily, superlative most mightily)

  1. In a mighty manner.
    Synonym: (obsolete) mightly
    1. (now literary) With much physical force, power, or strength; also, with divine or superhuman power or strength.
      Synonyms: (informal) mighty, strongly, powerfully; vigorously
      The chivalrous knights entered the lists and fought mightily.
    2. With much emotional, intellectual, or mental force or power; vehemently.
      • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 214, column 2:
        Sir, I ſhal not be ſlacke, in ſigne vvhereof / Pleaſe ye vve may contriue this afternoone, / And quaffe carovvſes to our Miſtreſſe health, / And do as aduerſaries do in lavv, / Striue mightily, but eate and drinke as friends.
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jonah 3:8, signature Gggg, recto, column 2:
        But let man and beaſt be couered with ſackecloth, and cry mightily vnto God: yea, let them turne euery one from his euill way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
      • 1886, John Ruskin, “Roslyn Chapel”, in Præterita. Outlines of Scenes and Thoughts Perhaps Worthy of Memory in My Past Life, volume I, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, pages 421–422:
        I wonder mightily now what sort of a creature I should have turned out, if at this time Love had been with me instead of against me; […]
      • 2014 July 1, Bill Mears, “Supreme Court: Old Habits Die Hard”, in CNN‎[1], archived from the original on 27 March 2025:
        The Supreme Court tried mightily to come together. […] But in the end came a familiar conservative–liberal split on the last, and perhaps most-watched case of the term ending this week.
    3. (prepositive, before an adjective or participial adjective) Of a characteristic: provided or present to a powerful or strong extent.
      • 1603, Richard Knolles, “The Life of Baiazet, Second of that Name, and Second Emperour of the Turkes”, in The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 459:
        [A]lthough he vvas a man mightely friended, yet vvas he by a publike decree baniſhed into one of the Abſyrtides, iſlan ds vpon the coaſt of Libvrnia.
      • 1898, Laurence Binyon, “[London Visions.] Songs of the World Unborn.”, in Porphyrion and Other Poems, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC, book, page 80:
        Time, O mighty and mightily peopled city, / Time is busy with thee.
    4. (now chiefly informal) To a great extent; extremely, greatly.
      Synonyms: enormously, (informal) mighty, much, very much; see also Thesaurus:extremely, Thesaurus:very
      He sounded mightily proud of himself.
    5. (obsolete) Put in place through the use of force or power.

Translations

References

  1. ^ “mightīlī, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “meahtig-líce, adv.”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 673, column 1.
  3. ^ “mightily, adv.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2024; “mightily, adv.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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