profoundly

pro·found·ly
P3R1O1F4O1U1N1D2L1Y4
/pɹəˈfaʊndli/

adverb

With depth, meaningfully.

“He thought and wrote profoundly.”

Less commonScrabble 19Word of the Day · Oct 8, 2026

Meanings

adverbprofoundly (comparative more profoundly, superlative most profoundly)

comparative more profoundly · superlative most profoundly

  1. mannerWith depth, meaningfully.

    He thought and wrote profoundly.

  2. evaluativeVery importantly.

    More profoundly, it has shaken our most fundamental assumptions.

  3. degreeDeeply; very; strongly or forcefully.

    From his childhood, she was profoundly troubled.

    4 more examples

    Leo was sleeping profoundly, and on the whole I thought it wise not to wake him.

    1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

    In fact, the influence of signage in a certain area may exist anywhere on a continuum from profoundly effective to utterly trivial or completely insignificant, irrespective of the intent motivating the signs.

    2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 11

    In 1997, Turkheimer, perhaps the preëminent behavior geneticist of his generation, published a short political meditation called “The Search for a Psychometric Left,” in which he called upon his fellow-liberals to accept that they had nothing to fear from genes. He proposed that “a psychometric left would recognize that human ability, individual differences in human ability, measures of human ability, and genetic influences on human ability are all real but profoundly complex, too complex for the imposition of biogenetic or political schemata.)

    2021 September 6, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, quoting Eric Turkheimer, “Can Progressives Be Convinced That Genetics Matters?”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Sep 2021, retrieved 24 Aug 2025

    Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said Monday if the Supreme Court does not resolve the issue of presidential immunity “quickly and decisively,” it will have a “profoundly negative impact” on the country.

    2024 April 22, Colin McCullough, quoting Liz Cheney, “Cheney warns of ‘profoundly negative impact’ if SCOTUS doesn’t resolve Trump immunity case quickly”, in CNN

Synonyms & antonyms

adverbto a great depth psychologically or emotionally

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Middle Englishprofoundly
  2. Englishprofoundly

From Middle English profoundly, profoundely, equivalent to profound + -ly.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Catalan profundament
  • profundamentin a profound manner
Dutch grondig
  • grondigin a profound manner
Esperanto profunde
  • profundein a profound manner
Finnish syvällisesti
  • syvällisestiin a profound manner
Greek βαθιά
  • βαθιά (vathiá)in a profound manner
Italian profondamente
  • profondamentein a profound manner
Portuguese profundamente
  • profundamentein a profound manner
Russian глубоко́
  • глубоко́ (glubokó)in a profound manner
Spanish profundamente
  • profundamentein a profound manner
Ukrainian гли́боко
  • гли́боко (hlýboko)in a profound manner
Cite this entry
APA

profoundly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/profoundly

MLA

“profoundly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/profoundly. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “profoundly,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/profoundly.

Source: profoundly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.