different between vaguely vs vaguery

English

Etymology

From vague +? -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ve??li/
• Hyphenation: vague?ly

Adverb

vaguely (comparative more vaguely, superlative most vaguely)

1. In a vague manner.

   He looked vaguely around the room, as if lost.
2. Loosely; more or less; somewhat.
   • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift

     Preceded by a Simpsons short shot in 3-D—perhaps the only thing more superfluous than a fourth Ice Age movie—Ice Age: Continental Drift finds a retinue of vaguely contemporaneous animals coping with life in the post-Pangaea age.

Translations

English

Etymology

vague +? -ery, perhaps influenced by vagary. Attested since at least the 1800s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ve????i/
• Homophone: vagary

Noun

vaguery (countable and uncountable, plural vagueries)

1. (uncountable) Vagueness, the condition of being vague.
   • 1859, New Exegesis of Shakespeare, page 245–246:

     […] this badge of rivalry and intrusion, and of the vaguery and vacillation which restrain them through dread of danger.

   • 1977 (first publication; republication in 2003), Tom Nairn, The Break-Up of Britain: crisis and neo-nationalism - Page 68:

     As a matter of fact, the particular breadth and vaguery of residual all-British consciousness decays more readily into racialism than into a defined, territorially restricted nationalism.

   • 1988, Kenneth Pickering, How to Study Modern Drama:

     There is a sharp and effective contrast between the incisiveness and energy of his speech and the vaguery and haziness he is attacking.
2. (countable) A vagueness, a thing which is vague, an example of vagueness.
3. (countable, in the plural) An eggcorn for vagary.

Translations

See also

• vagary