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hardly

adverb

Form of hard , adverb of hard.

Simple meaning

Barely, only just, almost not.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hahrdlee

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhɑɹdli

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adverb

  1. degree

    Barely, only just, almost not.

  2. Certainly not; not at all.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (degree) Barely, only just, almost not.

Used this way, hardly is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use hardly

  • “We hardly knew them.”adverb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

hardly believehardly surprisinghardly possiblehardly knowhardly necessary

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • hardadjectiveBase word

    Not easy.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • hardnessnounDerived noun

    The property of being rigid and resistant to pressure.

  • hardinessnounDerived noun

    The property of being strong and healthy in constitution.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.