1
: most importantly : principally, especially
Examples of chiefly in a Sentence
Adverb
our video collection consists chiefly of comedies, but we have a few horror movies
Recent Examples on the Web
Judy Berman, Time, 22 May 2025
Barreto, while maintaining the FWC’s investigation contributed to Pino now facing a felony charge, said aspects of the investigation, chiefly why the body camera footage wasn’t retained as evidence, will be reevaluated.
—Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 20 May 2025
Stuart Anderson, Forbes.com, 30 Mar. 2025
This month, a new kind of space telescope is setting out on a two-year mission to create four complete maps of the entire celestial sky that will catalog the origins of the universe and seek out the ingredients of life − chiefly water and carbon dioxide molecules − in distant interstellar clouds.
—Stephen J. Beard, USA TODAY, 24 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for chiefly
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Adverb
And while Sirens shows flickers of ambition to transcend the typical A-list crime soap, its admittedly addictive pleasures are chiefly of the sudsy variety.
—Judy Berman, Time, 22 May 2025
Barreto, while maintaining the FWC’s investigation contributed to Pino now facing a felony charge, said aspects of the investigation, chiefly why the body camera footage wasn’t retained as evidence, will be reevaluated.
—Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 20 May 2025
Adjective
The United States has exported chiefly chemicals, machinery and transportation equipment to Russia and imported mainly oils, chemicals and metals.
—Stuart Anderson, Forbes.com, 30 Mar. 2025
This month, a new kind of space telescope is setting out on a two-year mission to create four complete maps of the entire celestial sky that will catalog the origins of the universe and seek out the ingredients of life − chiefly water and carbon dioxide molecules − in distant interstellar clouds.
—Stephen J. Beard, USA TODAY, 24 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for chiefly
Cite this Entry
“Chiefly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chiefly. Accessed 29 May. 2025.
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