loosely
adverb
Simple meaning
Structurally open and not compact or close.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
loosleeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlusli
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adverb
Structurally open and not compact or close
In a relaxed manner; not rigid
In a loose manner
“A union of loosely federated states.”
Not tightly.
Approximately.
Used to indicate an imprecise use of words; short for loosely speaking
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Structurally open and not compact or close
Used this way, loosely 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 loosely
- “A union of loosely federated states.”adverb
- “His hands lay loosely.”adverb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Not compact or dense in structure or arrangement.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Lettuce with loosely curled leaves that do not form a compact head.
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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.