scarcely
scarcely Lexical Profile
scarcely Game Scores & Validity
• adverb
By a very small margin; almost not at all; barely.
"The exhausted hiker could scarcely keep his eyes open after the long trek."
Only a very short time before (typically followed by 'when' or 'before' to indicate that one event was immediately succeeded by another).
"Scarcely had the concert begun when a sudden power outage plunged the hall into darkness."
Used to suggest that something is highly unlikely, unreasonable, or certainly not the case.
"You can scarcely expect to master a new language without regular practice."
Word Nuance & Usage
Because "scarcely" carries an inherently negative meaning, it should not be paired with another negative word such as "not" or "never" in standard English. When placed at the beginning of a sentence for rhetorical emphasis, it triggers subject-auxiliary inversion (e.g., "Scarcely had we arrived when the rain started").
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Formed in Middle English from the adjective "scarce" plus the adverbial suffix "-ly", tracing back through Old Northern French "eschars" (sparing, niggardly) to Vulgar Latin "excarpsus", meaning "plucked out" or "selected".