mostly
advUK /ˈməʊstli/ · US /ˈmoʊstli/
Etymology From most + -ly.
1
Mainly or chiefly; for the most part; usually, generally, on the whole.
- They're mostly good people, although they have made a few mistakes.
- Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3:
2
Obsolete To the greatest extent; most.
- She was to be their chosen visitor, she was to be for weeks under the same roof with the person whose society she mostly prized [...]!1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC:
- Synonyms
- by and large, in the main, more often than not, largely, predominantly, principally, all in all, all things considered, altogether, broadly, as a rule, basically, chiefly, feckly, for the most part, generally, in the large, mainly, mostly, on the whole, overall, pretty well, primarily
- Derived terms
- mostly plus
- Related terms
- degree, extent, very, fundamentally, intrinsically, normally
- Hypernyms
- partially
- Hyponyms
- usually