A complete, filterable list of 971+ English words ending in -LY — with definitions, word types, and difficulty ratings.
Adding "-ly" to an adjective is one of the most regular patterns in English. It produces adverbs that modify verbs, other adjectives, or whole clauses. Partly because the transformation is so transparent, "-ly" adverbs are a core tool for precise, varied writing — they let you say how, when, or to what degree without restructuring a sentence.
Part of speech: The vast majority are adverbs formed by adding -ly to an adjective (quick → quickly). A smaller set are adjectives themselves (friendly, lively, lonely) or nouns (family, rally).
"LY" is a useful two-letter play in Scrabble and Words With Friends, but its real value comes from the long words it unlocks. Words like "quickly," "closely," and "strongly" score well and are easy to remember because their base adjective is already familiar.
This list includes 971 English words ending in -ly, drawn from a curated dictionary of 10,000+ words spanning everyday vocabulary, academic terms, and word-game forms. The count focuses on base forms; inflected variants (e.g. plurals or conjugations) are counted separately.
Common examples from this list include: Actually, Boldl. Use the difficulty filter above to browse easy, medium, or hard words separately.
The vast majority are adverbs formed by adding -ly to an adjective (quick → quickly). A smaller set are adjectives themselves (friendly, lively, lonely) or nouns (family, rally). Use the "Type" filter above to narrow the list to nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs specifically.
Most standard words on this list are accepted in major Scrabble dictionaries (TWL, SOWPODS). Some hard-difficulty words are archaic, borrowed, or dialect forms whose validity can vary between rulesets — always verify against the official word list for your competition or app.