nearly

1. 1.

   (of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but

   “the job is (just) about done”

   “the baby was almost asleep when the alarm sounded”

   “we're almost finished”

   “the car all but ran her down”

   “he nearly fainted”

   “talked for nigh onto 2 hours”

   “the recording is well-nigh perfect”

   “virtually all the parties signed the contract”

   “I was near exhausted by the run”

   “most everyone agrees”

   Synonymsaboutalmostmostnearnighvirtuallywell-nigh
2. 2.

   in a close manner

   “the two phenomena are intimately connected”

   “the person most nearly concerned”

   Synonymscloselyintimately

Questions about nearly

What does nearly mean?

nearly means "(of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in nearly?

nearly has 2 syllables: near-ly. The stress falls on "near". In IPA it is /ˈnɪɹli/.

What is another word for nearly?

Close synonyms include about, almost, most, near, nigh. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is nearly a common word?

nearly is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.