Library / English Dictionary

SLOWLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Without speed ('slow' is sometimes used informally for 'slowly')

Example:

please go slow so I can see the sights

Synonyms:

easy; slow; slowly; tardily

Classified under:

Adverbs

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Antonym:

quickly (with speed)

Pertainym:

slow (not moving quickly; taking a comparatively long time)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In music

Example:

Play this lento, please

Synonyms:

lento; slowly

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

slow (at a slow tempo)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The three vessels had been sweeping swiftly westwards, the cog still well to the front, although the galleys were slowly drawing in upon either quarter.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Von Bork walked slowly back to the study when the last gleams of the motor lamps had faded into the distance.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It grows slowly, is more common in women than in men, and often occurs before age 45.

(Papillary thyroid cancer, NCI Dictionary)

An X-linked inherited disorder characterized by slowly progressing weakness in the muscles of the legs and pelvis.

(Becker's Muscular Dystrophy, NCI Thesaurus)

Slowly but steadily, the world has made progress against the disease.

(The Dog's Nose Knows Malaria, Kevin Enochs/VOA)

A slowly growing, benign, usually encapsulated neoplasm arising from the esophagus.

(Benign Esophageal Schwannoma, NCI Thesaurus)

You need not get too focused on those dates, though, for Neptune moves so slowly that it takes Neptune 165 years to circle the Sun.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Slowly the fact of life came back to him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

When the heart beats too slowly, it is called bradycardia.

(Arrhythmia, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

Prostate cancer, this buildup of abnormal cells in a man’s prostate — a gland below the bladder and in front of the rectum — often has no early symptoms and usually grows very slowly.

(Biomarker Signatures of Prostate Cancer, NIH)