gradually

English

Etymology

From gradual +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuəli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: grad‧u‧al‧ly

Adverb

gradually (comparative more gradually, superlative most gradually)

1. In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.
   • 2014 September 29, Douglas Quenqua, “Toolmaking May Have Risen Independently”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 1 October 2014:

     The most likely conclusion, the researchers say, is that the Levallois method was not taken to Eurasia by African migrants, but evolved there gradually and independently.

   • 2021 January 5, Peter Foster, “Peter Foster: Sustainable Newspeak by 2050”, in Financial Post‎:

     The instrument of this dumbing down in Nineteen Eighty-Four was Newspeak, the official language of the English Socialist Party (Ingsoc). Newspeak was a sort of Totalitarian Esperanto that sought gradually to diminish the range of what was thinkable by eliminating, contracting and manufacturing words.

2. (obsolete) by degrees
   • 1682, Nehemiah Grew, The Anatomy of Plants. […], [London]: […] W. Rawlins, for the author, published 1682, →OCLC:

     Horns, upon the due accession of Moisture, doth gradually become Soft.

Synonyms

• (making slow progress): ponderously, sluggishly; See also Thesaurus:slowly
• (by degrees): incrementally, step by step, See also Thesaurus:gradually

Derived terms

• gradually typed

Translations

in gradual manner

Arabic: شَيْئاً فَشَيْئاً (šayʔan fašayʔan), خُطْوةً فَخُطْوةً (ḵuṭwatan faḵuṭwatan), تَدْرِيجِيّاً (tadrījiyyan) North Levantine Arabic: معو معو (maʕu maʕu), شوي شوي (šway šway) Armenian: աստիճանաբար (hy) (astičanabar) Azerbaijani: tədricən Belarusian: паступо́ва (pastupóva) Bulgarian: постепенно (bg) (postepenno) Catalan: gradualment (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 逐漸 / 逐渐 (zh) (zhújiàn), 漸漸 / 渐渐 (zh) (jiànjiàn), 漸次 / 渐次 (zh) (jiàncì) Czech: postupně (cs) Danish: gradvis Dutch: geleidelijk (nl), allengs (nl), gaandeweg (nl), langzamerhand (nl) Esperanto: grade, malabrupte Finnish: asteittain (fi), vähitellen (fi) French: progressivement (fr) Galician: gradualmente German: nach und nach (de), allmählich (de), stufenweise (de), schrittweise (de) Greek: βαθμιαία (el) (vathmiaía), σταδιακά (el) (stadiaká) Hanunoo: amat-amat Hungarian: fokozatosan (hu) Italian: gradualmente (it) Japanese: 段々と (ja) (だんだんと, dandan to), 徐々に (ja) (じょじょに, jojo ni), 次第に (ja) (しだいに, shidai ni) Korean: 점점 (ko) (jeomjeom), 점차 (ko) (jeomcha), 서서히 (ko) (seoseohi) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: وردە وردە (wirde wirde) Latin: paulātim, gradātim Macedonian: постепено (postepeno) Manchu: ᡠᠯᡥᡳᠶᡝᠨ (ulhiyen), ᡠᠯᡥᡳᠶᡝᠨ ᡠᠯᡥᡳᠶᡝᠨ ᡳ (ulhiyen ulhiyen-i) Middle English: esiliche Navajo: tąądee Norwegian: Bokmål: etter hvert (no), gradvis, litt etter litt Nynorsk: etter kvart Plautdietsch: aulmälich Polish: stopniowo (pl), krok po kroku (pl) Portuguese: gradualmente (pt), pouco a pouco (pt) Romanian: treptat (ro), în mod gradat, progresiv (ro), în mod treptat Russian: постепе́нно (ru) (postepénno) Scottish Gaelic: mean air mhean Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: по̀степено Roman: pòstepeno (sh) Slovak: postupne Slovene: postopoma Spanish: gradualmente (es), poco a poco (es), paulatinamente (es) Swedish: gradvis (sv) Ukrainian: поступо́во (postupóvo), пово́лі (povóli) Vietnamese: dần dần (vi)