Slow vs. Slowly: Usage Guide

Some commentators claim that careful writers avoid the adverb slow, in spite of the fact that it has had over four centuries of usage. have a continent forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower — William Shakespeare In actual practice, slow and slowly are not used in quite the same way. Slow is almost always used with verbs that denote movement or action, and it regularly follows the verb it modifies. beans … are best cooked long and slow — Louise Prothro Slowly is used before the verb a sense of outrage, which slowly changed to shame — Paul Horgan and with participial adjectives. a slowly dawning awareness … of the problem — Amer. Labor Slowly is used after verbs where slow might also be used burn slow or slowly and after verbs where slow would be unidiomatic. the leadership turned slowly toward bombing as a means of striking back — David Halberstam

Examples of slowly in a Sentence

Things are slowly getting better. walked slowly toward the ringing phone

Recent Examples on the Web The pandemic threw a big old wrench in the works, but things are slowly getting back to normal. — Q.ai - Powering A Personal Wealth Movement, Forbes, 3 Aug. 2022 Thousands of flag-waving Puerto Ricans lined Columbus Avenue as the parade slowly made its way toward Franklin Park. — Alexander Thompson, BostonGlobe.com, 31 July 2022 But a companion House bill moved much more slowly as Democrats there sought to leverage their own priorities, such as a renewal of federal assistance to workers disadvantaged by foreign trade. — Yasmeen Abutaleb And Mike Debonis, Anchorage Daily News, 26 July 2022 Potential workers sidelined by the virus are also slowly getting back on the job, taking the edge off rising labor costs. — Mark Zandi For Cnn Business Perspectives, CNN, 20 July 2022 Gay and bisexual men in the U.S. are hitting walls in their hunt for monkeypox vaccines because of limited supplies, prompting criticism from some activists that the government moved too slowly to bolster its vaccine stockpile. — Jon Kamp And Denise Roland, WSJ, 14 July 2022 Immigrants have slowly been getting access to some health care programs. — CBS News, 30 June 2022 The message seems to be getting through, albeit slowly. — Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2022 But as other nations have ramped up their efforts to track and prevent the spread of infection, experts say the United States has moved too slowly to expand access to monkeypox testing and vaccinate people at highest risk. — Fenit Nirappil, Washington Post, 23 June 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'slowly.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.