archly

adverb

arch·​ly ˈärch-lē 

1

: in an arch manner

2

: extremely

archly conservative

Synonyms

• achingly
• almighty
• awful
• awfully
• badly
• beastly
• blisteringly
• bone
• colossally
• corking
• cracking
• damn
• damned
• dang
• deadly
• desperately
• eminently
• enormously
• especially
• ever
• exceedingly
• exceeding
• extra
• extremely
• fabulously
• fantastically
• far
• fiercely
• filthy
• frightfully
• full
• greatly
• heavily
• highly
• hugely
• immensely
• incredibly
• intensely
• jolly
• majorly
• mightily
• mighty
• monstrous [chiefly dialect]
• mortally
• most
• much
• particularly
• passing
• rattling
• real
• really
• right
• roaring
• roaringly
• seriously
• severely
• so
• sore
• sorely
• spanking
• specially
• stinking
• such
• super
• supremely
• surpassingly
• terribly
• that
• thumping
• too
• unco
• uncommonly
• vastly
• very
• vitally
• way
• whacking
• wicked
• wildly

Examples of archly in a Sentence

an archly competitive young executive

Recent Examples on the Web

In other contexts, Cooper and Carlson might have decried such an approach—an archly postmodern attitude in which all facts are relative, all orthodoxies suspect. —Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 5 Sep. 2024

The gentrifying Reagan years that followed gave rise to archly analytic work addressing institutional power. —Nancy Princenthal, New York Times, 16 May 2024

That’s essentially what happened when a Northern California man died in early December — a demise that his brother archly and elegantly recounted in an obituary published in The Times. —James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 23 Dec. 2023

The antebellum garb is an unmistakable Walker signature, but the scene is expressive and foreboding — not the archly comic and subversive work for which the artist is best known. —Kriston Capps, Washington Post, 4 Oct. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1712, in the meaning defined at sense 1