Meanings
comparative more quietly · superlative most quietly
- Producing little or no noise.
When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him.[…]. The captive made no resistance and came not only quietly but in a series of eager little rushes like a timid dog on a choke chain.
1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLCAntonyms: loudly
- Without attracting attention.
"Since hypertension doesn't usually cause symptoms, it flies below the radar, quietly damaging the vessels that deliver blood to your body and brain and increasing your risk of being blindsided by a heart attack or stroke."
2026, Ginny Graves, quoting Rishi K. Wadhera, “The Most Important Health Metric You're Not Tracking”, in Men's Health, volume 41, number 2, page 18
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbProducing little or no noise.
More synonyms by meaning
adverbwith low volume
adverbwith little or no sound
adverbwith little or no activity or no agitation (‘quiet’ is a nonstandard variant for ‘quietly’)
adverbin a restful manner
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishquietely
- Englishquietly
From Middle English quietely, quyetly, equivalent to quiet + -ly.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek σιγῇ, σιωπῇ
- σιγῇ (sigēî)producing little or no noise
- σιωπῇ (siōpēî)producing little or no noise
- ἀκήν (akḗn)producing little or no noise
Arabic بِهُدُوء
- بِهُدُوء (bihudūʔ)producing little or no noise
Bulgarian ти́хо
- ти́хо (tího)producing little or no noise
Catalan silenciosament
- silenciosamentproducing little or no noise
Chinese Mandarin 悄悄地, 安靜地 /安静地
- 悄悄地 (qiāoqiāo de)producing little or no noise
- 安靜地 /安静地 (ānjìng de)producing little or no noise
Czech tiše
- tišeproducing little or no noise
Esperanto silente, kviete
- silenteproducing little or no noise
- kvieteproducing little or no noise
Finnish hiljaa, hiljaisesti
- hiljaaproducing little or no noise
- hiljaisestiproducing little or no noise
French paisablement, tranquillement
- paisablementproducing little or no noise
- tranquillementproducing little or no noise
- quiètementproducing little or no noise
German ruhig, leise
- ruhigproducing little or no noise
- leiseproducing little or no noise
Greek αθόρυβα
- αθόρυβα (athóryva)producing little or no noise
Hindi चुपके
- चुपके (cupke)producing little or no noise
Hungarian csendesen, csendben
- csendesenproducing little or no noise
- csendbenproducing little or no noise
- halkanproducing little or no noise
Japanese 静かに
- 静かに (shizuka ni)producing little or no noise
Korean 조용하게, 조용히
- 조용하게 (joyonghage)producing little or no noise
- 조용히 (joyonghi)producing little or no noise
Māori māika
- māikaproducing little or no noise
Polish cicho
- cichoproducing little or no noise
Portuguese silenciosamente
- silenciosamenteproducing little or no noise
Russian ти́хо, сми́рно
- ти́хо (tíxo)producing little or no noise
- сми́рно (smírno)producing little or no noise
Scottish Gaelic os ìosal
- os ìosalproducing little or no noise
Slovak ticho
- tichoproducing little or no noise
Spanish mansamente, despacio
- mansamenteproducing little or no noise
- despacioproducing little or no noise
Ukrainian ти́хо
- ти́хо (týxo)producing little or no noise
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
quietly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quietly
“quietly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quietly. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quietly,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quietly.
Source: quietly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.