gradually

In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.

Adverb

  1. In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.
    • 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. - 2014 September 29, Douglas Quenqua,...
    • 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...
  2. by degrees
    • Horns, upon the due accession of Moisture, doth gradually become Soft. - 1682, Nehemiah Grew, The Anatomy of Plants. […], [London]: […] W. Rawlins, for the author, published 1682, →OCLC:

Origin

Etymology tree English gradual Middle English -ly English -ly English gradually From gradual + -ly.

Forms

more gradually most gradually

Synonyms

ponderously sluggishly incrementally step by step bit by bit by degrees by inches continually footmeal inch by inch gradatim gradually little by little momentarily momently one by one one step at a time progressively stepmeal unsuddenly

Antonyms

abruptly suddenly suddently

Related

consecutively sequentially seriatim slow

Derived

gradually typed