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fairly

/ˈfɛərli/

/ˈfɛəli/

IPA guide

When you do something fairly, you treat everyone with equal consideration. Sharing a pizza fairly between six people is easy: just give each person one slice.

A teacher who doesn't treat all students fairly isn't a very good teacher — and a police officer who doesn't act fairly toward all citizens is also doing a poor job. When you behave fairly, you're unbiased and impartial, and you follow the rules. You can also use this adverb to mean "to a large degree" or "reasonably." For example, you could say, "I'm fairly certain that it's going to snow again tomorrow."

Definitions of fairly
  1. adverb
    without favoring one party, in a fair evenhanded manner
    “deal fairly with one another”
    synonyms: evenhandedly, fair
  2. adverb
    in conformity with the rules or laws and without fraud or cheating
    “they played fairly
    synonyms: clean, fair
    see moresee less
    antonyms:
    below the belt, unfairly
    in an unfair manner
  3. adverb
    to a moderately sufficient extent or degree
    “he is fairly clever with computers”
    synonyms: jolly, middling, moderately, passably, pretty, reasonably, somewhat
    see moresee less
    antonyms:
    immoderately, unreasonably
    to a degree that exceeds the bounds or reason or moderation
Pronunciation
US

/ˈfɛərli/

UK

/ˈfɛəli/

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