Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb Above all; especially.
- adverb Almost entirely; mainly.
- adjective Of or relating to a chief.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Principally; above all; in the first place; eminently.
- For the most part; mostly: as, his estates were chiefly situated in Scotland.
- Synonyms Mainly, especially, eminently, primarily.
- Of or pertaining to a chief; proper to a chief.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb In the first place; principally; preëminently; above; especially.
- adverb For the most part; mostly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb focus
especially orprimarily ;above all - adverb focus
mainly orprincipally ;almost entirely - adjective of, or relating to a
chief
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb for the most part
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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That many popular historical writers used this term chiefly because it was fashionable, can also be derived from the fact that they did not attribute to it a very distinctive meaning.
REVOLUTION FELIX GILBERT 1968
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It is a term chiefly applied to ghosts; but Mr. Gum was a great deal more like a ghost than like a man.
Elster's Folly Henry Wood 1850
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In this sense it is nearly synonymous with large j and they are often used indiscriminately, but with some difference of meaning .j for as target a term chiefly employedto detiote
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So we see that the Greek word "chiefly" chosen by the Septuagint scholars to mean parthenos is the word bethulah, which Mr. Orbaum stresses is "the Hebrew word for virgin."
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The president hailed as the most gifted communicator since Ronald Reagan has suffered chiefly from the inability to tell a convincing story.
Barack Obama's down but not out Jonathan Freedland 2010
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As to critiquing stories, remember that what you are doing, chiefly, is responding to a story as a reader.
28 feet from bumper to bumper jmeadows 2009
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The candles, pictures, images, rosary, holdy water, ringing of bells, chanting in an unknown tongue -- all these mummeries which are so conspicuous in a Catholic service interest me chiefly from the fact
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But it chiefly is a weapon against innovation, against new ideas, any ideas.
Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood 2007
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But it chiefly is a weapon against innovation, against new ideas, any ideas.
Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood 2007
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Our knowledge of oldest Arab verse is drawn chiefly from the Katáb al-Aghání
devonvaroz commented on the word chiefly
Thanks, E.B. White.
December 12, 2010