darkly
darkly Lexical Profile
darkly Game Scores & Validity
• adverb
In a gloomy, menacing, or ominous manner that suggests anger, pessimism, or ill fortune.
"The professor muttered darkly about the declining standards of academic writing."
With a deep, shadowy, or intense shade of color or low level of light.
"The antique oak floorboards were darkly stained and polished to a rich luster."
In an obscure, indistinct, or mysterious manner that is difficult to perceive or understand fully.
"In the early philosophical treatises, the nature of human consciousness is only darkly hinted at."
• Rhymes for darkly
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English deorclice, meaning 'secretly, obscurely, or gloomily,' formed from the adjective dark and the adverbial suffix -ly. Its archaic sense of 'obscurely' or 'indistinctly' survives primarily because of the famous biblical phrase 'through a glass, darkly' in the King James Version of 1 Corinthians 13:12.