-ly

-ly

forms adverbs (boldly, quickly; see adverb ²) and adjectives (goodly, kindly). Some adjectives form adverbs in -ly in addition to being used as adverbs themselves, always with distinctions in meaning (e.g. dear / dearly, direct / directly, hard / hardly, right / rightly, tight / tightly). See the entries for these words, and for other aspects see -edly; -lily.