Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell totally

What it means: To a complete degree or extent.

In a sentence: The ice cream was totally delicious! ▶

The part people get wrong

Watch for double l, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as totaly or totelly.

Same family: total, totaled, totaling, totality. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Totally comes from the adjective “total,” which came into English from Medieval Latin ‘totalis,’ meaning ‘entire’ or ‘whole.’ Adding the suffix -ly turned it into an adverb, and in modern spoken English it has also become a common intensifier in casual speech (for example, “That’s totally true”).

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

definitely · happily · seriously · personally · physically · rapidly · constantly · ultimately

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