as in positively
in an approving manner
she smiled approvingly at the child who was performing onstage
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of approvingly
Pynchon is clearly a huge fan of detective fiction and quotes approvingly from the genre while not quite wanting to immerse himself fully within it.
—
Literary Hub, 10 Dec. 2025
Rotwood approvingly sees no such sentimentality in Wednesday.
—Jessica M. Goldstein, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2025
Literary Hub, 10 Dec. 2025
Rotwood approvingly sees no such sentimentality in Wednesday.
—Jessica M. Goldstein, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for approvingly
Adverb
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Harper is kind to her peers, collaborative, and consistently contributes positively to our program.—
Heide Janssen,
Oc Register,
15 Mar. 2026
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Along with more assurances that the city is absolutely positively definitely ready to handle the hundreds of thousands of international visitors, leaders laid out some party plans.—
AJ Willingham,
AJC.com,
13 Mar. 2026
Adverb
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This compares favorably to a Galaxy S26 tested in the same spot, which hit 755Mbps down and 263Mbps up.—
Eric Zeman,
PC Magazine,
13 Mar. 2026
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Here, San Diego County compares favorably to many of the counties that did make the list, with 490 total petitions since 2023.—
Paul Sisson,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Approvingly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/approvingly. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.
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