smugly

1. 1.

   in a smug manner

   “the bureaucrats explained smugly that the facts provided by their own experts show no cause for concern”

Questions about smugly

What does smugly mean?

smugly means "in a smug manner".

How many syllables are in smugly?

smugly has 2 syllables: smug-ly. The stress falls on "smug". In IPA it is /ˈsmʌɡli/.

Is smugly a common word?

smugly is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.