LIKELY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Likely

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/lˈaɪkli/ Listen

Likely

adjective

(compar. likelier; superl. likeliest)

1.

Has a good chance of being the case or of coming about. "She is likely to forget" , "A likely place for a restaurant" , "The broken limb is likely to fall" , "Rain is likely" , "A likely topic for investigation" , "Likely candidates for the job" Antonym: unlikely.

2.

Likely but not certain to be or become true or real. Synonym: probable. "He foresaw a probable loss" Antonym: improbable.

3.

Expected to become or be; in prospect. Synonym: potential.

4.

Within the realm of credibility.

adverb

1.

With considerable certainty; without much doubt. Synonyms: belike, in all likelihood, in all probability, probably. "In all likelihood we are headed for war"

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Etymology of 'Likely'

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Likely" Quotes from Famous Books

... word convinces the utterer; but a man can act against his own bad judgment without warping it, and contrive to win in a bad cause without maintaining that it is a good one, like the barrister. Perhaps for this very reason an old attorney is the more likely of the two to make a ...

— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... prevailing character of the social relations of the age; a remark indeed predicable of most works of fiction, written by authors contemporary with the events they describe, and more especially so of that popular minstrelsy, which, emanating from a simple, uncorrupted class, is less likely to swerve from truth, than more ostentatious works of art. The long cohabitation of the Saracens with the Christians, (full evidence of which is afforded by Capmany, (Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iv. Apend. no. 11,) who quotes a document from ...

— History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella V1 • William H. Prescott

... Love feast at the Brick meetinghouse. Luke 14 was read. One brother spoke impressively on the last three words in the first verse: "THEY WATCHED HIM." Said he, "The enemies of the Lord most likely did this. They were ever eager to find some ground of accusation against him. But the Lord was not alone in this. 'A servant is not greater than his lord.' We, Brethren, are liable to be watched. And I think I may say truthfully ...

— Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary - Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk • John Kline

... Nilakantha as something that causes the patana or downfall of a person hence sin. [There is no reference for this note in the body of this page, so I have placed it in a likely location.—JBH] ...

— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... we're likely to get in to port before long, if we only have a breeze of wind," said Harvey Barth, the cook and steward of the brig Waldo, in a peculiar, drawling tone, by which any one who knew the speaker might have recognized him without the use ...

— The Coming Wave - The Hidden Treasure of High Rock • Oliver Optic

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