Adjectives Ending in -ly: Friendly, Lovely, Costly and More
Most words ending in -ly are adverbs (quickly, slowly), but a few dozen common ones are adjectives: friendly, lovely, lonely, lively, ugly, silly, costly, deadly, elderly, likely, timely, holy, early and daily, among others. You can tell them apart by what they describe: a friendly dog describes a noun, so friendly is an adjective.
Below is a grouped list, the pattern behind most of them, the words that work as both adjective and adverb, and how to say “in a friendly way” without inventing an adverb. For the opposite problem, adverbs with no -ly, see adverbs without -ly.
The pattern: noun + -ly = adjective
Add -ly to an adjective and you usually get an adverb: quick → quickly. Add -ly to a noun and you usually get an adjective meaning “like” or “having the qualities of” that noun:
| Noun | Adjective | Example |
|---|---|---|
| friend | friendly | a friendly neighbour |
| love | lovely | a lovely evening |
| cost | costly | a costly mistake |
| time | timely | a timely reminder |
| mother / father | motherly / fatherly | fatherly advice |
| scholar | scholarly | a scholarly article |
| order | orderly | an orderly queue |
| world | worldly | worldly possessions |
| ghost | ghostly | a ghostly light |
| heaven | heavenly | a heavenly smell |
A second, smaller group are adjectives whose base word already ends in -l and takes -y: hill → hilly, oil → oily, wool → woolly, smell → smelly. They end in -ly by spelling, not by the suffix.
Adjectives ending in -ly, grouped by meaning
Describing people and personality
friendly, unfriendly, lonely, lively, silly, jolly, kindly, cowardly, manly, womanly, motherly, fatherly, brotherly, sisterly, neighbourly (US neighborly), scholarly, saintly, surly, wily, miserly, sprightly, unruly, gentlemanly, homely
Describing appearance
lovely, ugly, comely, shapely, burly, portly, gangly, curly, wrinkly, sickly, stately, ghostly, sparkly, bubbly
Describing value, danger and quality
costly, deadly, measly, lowly, beastly, heavenly, holy, worldly, earthly, unseemly, ungodly, prickly, wobbly, chilly, hilly, oily, woolly, smelly
Describing time and frequency
early, timely, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, hourly, nightly, leisurely, elderly
Describing likelihood and order
likely, unlikely, only, orderly, disorderly
Words that are both adjective and adverb
The time words in particular do double duty. The position tells you which one you have:
- a daily newspaper (adjective) / It is published daily. (adverb)
- an early train / We left early.
- a leisurely walk / They strolled leisurely along the beach. (the adverb use is less common; “at a leisurely pace” is safer)
- a kindly old man / She kindly offered to help.
- the likely winner / He’ll likely be late. (American English uses likely alone as an adverb; British English prefers very likely, most likely or probably.)
How to make an adverb from an -ly adjective
You cannot simply add another -ly. Forms such as friendlily and lovelily exist in dictionaries but sound awkward and are almost never used. Use a phrase instead:
| Not | Use |
|---|---|
| She smiled friendlily. | She smiled in a friendly way. |
| He spoke sillily. | He spoke in a silly voice. |
| They behaved cowardlily. | They behaved like cowards. |
| The dancers moved livelily. | The dancers moved in a lively manner / with energy. |
Watch the linking verbs
After look, seem, sound, feel and smell, English uses an adjective, so an -ly adjective is correct there: You look lovely. The plan sounds costly. The band sounded lively (not livelily). This is the same rule behind good versus well and I feel bad or badly.
A few words that trip people up
- homely: in British English, cosy and welcoming (a homely kitchen); in American English, plain or unattractive. The same compliment can land as an insult.
- lonely vs alone: alone means without others; lonely means sad about it. Alone also cannot go before a noun, while lonely can (a lonely road).
- elderly: a polite word for old people; the elderly as a group noun is common but some style guides prefer older people.
- deadly vs deathly: deadly can kill (a deadly snake); deathly is like death (a deathly silence).
Comparatives: friendlier or more friendly?
Because these are adjectives, they compare like adjectives. Most two-syllable -ly adjectives take -er and -est, with the y changing to i: friendly → friendlier → friendliest, lovely → lovelier, lively → liveliest, silly → sillier, ugly → ugliest, early → earlier. Many also accept more and most (more friendly, the most lovely), which can sound more formal or more emphatic.
Longer ones, and some formal ones, normally use more: more scholarly, more orderly, more cowardly, more elderly. Costly takes both: costlier and more costly are both standard. Likely usually goes with more: more likely is far more common than likelier. The general rules are in comparatives: -er or more?
Practice
A. Adjective or adverb?
- We had a lovely time.
- She arrived early.
- It was an early start.
- He answered quickly.
- The weekly meeting was cancelled.
B. Fix the sentence.
- The waiter greeted us friendlily.
- That was a deathly mistake.
- You look lovelily tonight.
Answers: 1 adjective (describes time). 2 adverb (says when she arrived). 3 adjective (describes start). 4 adverb. 5 adjective. 6 greeted us in a friendly way. 7 a deadly (or costly) mistake. 8 You look lovely tonight.
Related: adjective or adverb: how to tell and adjective suffixes.
Checked against Merriam-Webster, the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Spotted an error? Tell us — see our editorial policy.
