protectively

1. 1.

   in a protective manner

   “he bent protectively over the woman”

Questions about protectively

What does protectively mean?

protectively means "in a protective manner".

How many syllables are in protectively?

protectively has 4 syllables: protec-tiv-e-ly. The stress falls on "tiv". In IPA it is /pɹəˈtɛktɪvli/.

Is protectively a common word?

protectively is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.