different between slightly vs radically

English

Etymology

slight +? -ly

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sla?tli/
• Hyphenation: slight?ly

Adverb

slightly (comparative more slightly, superlative most slightly)

1. Slenderly; delicately.

   He was slightly built, but tall.

2. (degree) To a small extent or degree.

   He weighed slightly less than his wife who was a foot shorter.

   Synonyms: a little, marginally, somewhat

   Antonyms: quite, very

Usage notes

Slightly is often used by the English to mean almost the opposite, something like rather. For example, "The big picture here of course is that still staggeringly low numbers of these migrants are being hired though, isn't it? And despite these rather positive tales we've just heard, there seems to be a broader, slightly grimmer picture which perhaps will have a lesson for other countries thinking of receiving migrants." (Ed Butler on BBC Business Daily, Sept. 23, 2016)

Translations

English

Etymology

radical +? -ly or radix (“root”) +? -ally

Adverb

radically (comparative more radically, superlative most radically)

1. In a radical manner; fundamentally; very.

   two radically different political groups

   • 2013, Louise Taylor, English talent gets left behind as Premier League keeps importing (in The Guardian, 20 August 2013)[1]

     The reasons for this growing disconnect are myriad and complex but the situation is exacerbated by the reality that those English players who do smash through our game's "glass ceiling" command radically inflated transfer fees.

2. At the root.

   "Clot" and "clod" are radically the same word.

   • 1788, Jonathan Edwards, in a report to the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences:

     This [Algonquian] language [family] is spoken by all the Indians throughout New England. Every tribe, as that of Stockbridge, that of Farmington, that of New London, &c. has a different dialect [i.e. language], but the language [family] is radically the same.

Related terms

• radical
• root

Translations

Anagrams

• cardially