hardly
hardly Lexical Profile
hardly Game Scores & Validity
• adverb
Scarcely; barely; almost not at all, or only to a very minimal degree.
"The lecture hall was so noisy that the students in the back row could hardly hear the professor."
Certainly not; by no means; used to qualify or reject a statement as unreasonable, unlikely, or untrue.
"After only two weeks of introductory lessons, you can hardly expect to speak the language fluently."
Harshly, severely, or unfavorably (now chiefly archaic or literary).
"Fortune dealt hardly with the early explorers during the brutal winter months."
Word Nuance & Usage
Do not confuse the adverbs 'hardly' and 'hard': 'hardly' means 'scarcely' or 'almost not at all' (e.g., 'he hardly worked'), whereas 'hard' as an adverb means 'with great effort' (e.g., 'he worked hard'). Additionally, because 'hardly' carries a negative force, combining it with another negative word (as in 'can't hardly') creates a nonstandard double negative.
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English 'heardlice', meaning 'sternly, severely, or bravely'. By the 16th century, the sense shifted from 'with difficulty or great effort' to 'barely' or 'scarcely'.