closely

English

Etymology

From close +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkləʊsliː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adverb

closely (comparative closelier or more closely, superlative closeliest or most closely)

1. In a close manner.

   Finnish and Estonian are closely related languages.

   The borderline between East and West Berlin was very closely guarded.

   The chairs are too closely spaced; could you move them apart?

   • 1946, Joseph Augustine Cushman, The larger fossil Foraminifera of the Panama Canal Zone:

     Test large, cylindrical, early portion closely coiled and always completely involute, later and larger portion uncoiled […]

   • 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎^[1]:

     “King Homer” follows the story of King Kong closely, with Mr. Burns taking the freakishly over-sized King Homer from his native Africa, where he lives proud as a simian god, to the United States, where he is an initially impressive but ultimately rather limited Broadway attraction.

2. (obsolete) secretly; privately
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28:

     That nought she did but wayle, and often steepe / Her dainty couch with tears which closely she did weepe.

Derived terms

• closely held

Translations

in a close manner

• Afrikaans: nabye
• Belarusian: це́сна (cjésna) (narrowly, tightly), блі́зка (blízka) (nearby, not far)
• Bulgarian: близо (bg) (blizo), плътно (bg) (plǎtno)
• Dutch: dichtbij (nl)
• Esperanto: proksime
• Finnish: läheisesti, tiiviisti (fi), visusti (fi), tarkasti (fi)
• French: étroitement (fr)
• German: dicht (de), eng (de), nah (de), nahe (de)
• Italian: strettamente (it), da vicino, a stretto contatto
• Polish: blisko (pl)
• Portuguese: de perto (pt), proximamente
• Russian: те́сно (ru) (tésno) (narrowly, tightly), бли́зко (ru) (blízko) (nearby, not far)
• Spanish: cercanamente (es)
• Ukrainian: ті́сно (tísno) (narrowly, tightly), бли́зько (uk) (blýzʹko) (nearby, not far)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} près (fr)
• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} dekat (id), ^{(please verify)} berdekatan (id)
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} proximo, ^{(please verify)} presso (ia)
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 近く (ja) (ちかく, chikaku)
• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} nær (no)
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} nära (sv)

Anagrams

• colleys