Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell mostly

hear itmost·ly/'moʊstli/adverbRules and real life

What it means: In large part or mainly.

In a sentence: The sky is mostly blue today with a few clouds.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as mostley or moslty.

Same family: most, almost, more, mostlyly (incorrect-form-awareness). If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Mostly” comes from the adjective “most” plus the common adverb ending “-ly,” which originally meant “in the manner of.” Over time, it shifted from literally “in the manner of most” to the modern meaning “mainly” or “for the greatest part.”

Patterns it uses: Drop the e before a suffix?

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