utterly

U1T1T1E1R1L1Y4
UK/ˈʌtəli/US/ˈʌtɚli/US[ˈʌɾɚli]Northern England/ˈʊtəli/

adverb

Completely; entirely; to the fullest extent.

“I have failed you utterly.”

CommonScrabble 10

Meanings

adverbutterly (not comparable)
  1. not comparableCompletely; entirely; to the fullest extent.

    I have failed you utterly.

    3 more examples

    Well, now we are utterly lost.

    An utterly emphatic 5-0 victory was ultimately capped by two wonder strikes in the last two minutes from Aston Villa midfielder Gary Gardner. Before that, England had utterly dominated to take another purposeful stride towards the 2013 European Championship in Israel. They have already established a five-point buffer at the top of Group Eight.

    2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report”, in The Telegraph, archived from the original on 05 Dec 2012

    Scott, somewhat stunned and now worried that everybody might have opened fire at the U.S. destroyers (he presumably missed Laffey and Farenholt merrily blazing away with their own guns into the darkness), ordered all firing to cease after a couple of minutes. Helena, along with Boise, was already several hundred shells lighter, and both Boise and San Francisco herself actually kept firing, as their captains were utterly sure about their targets; San Francisco's captain was very apologetic as he overruled Admiral Scott.

    2020 December 9, Drachinifel, 20:18 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Cape Esperance (IJN 1 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04 Dec 2022

Synonyms & antonyms

adverbcompletely and without qualification; used informally as intensifiers

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Englishutter
  2. Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
  3. Proto-Germanic*līką
  4. Englishutterly

From utter + -ly.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

utterly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/utterly

MLA

“utterly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/utterly. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “utterly,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/utterly.

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