eerily

English

Etymology

From eerie +‎ -ly. Compare Old English earglīċe, earhlīċe (“in a cowardly manner, timidly, fearfully”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪəɹɪli/

• Audio (US):

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Adverb

eerily (comparative more eerily, superlative most eerily)

1. In an eerie manner.
   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IX, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 244:

     And it was the voice of a human being—a known, loved, well-remembered voice—that of Edward Fairfax Rochester; and it spoke in pain and woe—wildly, eerily, urgently.

   • 2006 September 11, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Bush Mourns 9/11 at Ground Zero as N.Y. Remembers”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     A woman whose fiancé died on Sept. 11, Maria Barreto-Mojica, said she noticed that something about yesterday had seemed eerily familiar. “I looked at the sky this morning. It was so blue, just the same as it was that morning,” said Ms. Barreto-Mojica, 48, who was to marry fire lieutenant Dennis Mojica.

Synonyms

• strangely
• ominously
• uncannily

Translations

In an eerie manner

• Czech: tajuplně
• Finnish: aavemaisesti (fi)
• French: étrangement (fr), sinistrement (fr)
• Spanish: espeluznantemente, inquietantemente, sobrecogedoramente
• Swedish: kusligt (sv)

Anagrams

• Reiley