English Reference
adverb

manually

adv.
US /ˈmænjuəɫi/ UK /mˈænjuːəli/ man·u·al·ly

  1. 01 B1 Intermediate

    using your hands to do a physical task.

    performed by hand rather than by a machine or mechanical device.

    Simple

    The old gate doesn't have a motor, so you have to open it manually.

    In context

    Before the factory was modernised, workers had to sort the raw materials manually, which was both time-consuming and physically exhausting.

    by handphysically
  2. 02 B2 Upper Intermediate Computing

    doing a task yourself on a computer or system instead of letting the software do it for you.

    requiring human input or control as opposed to being handled by an automated computer system.

    Simple

    The software didn't update itself, so I had to enter the data manually.

    In context

    The system administrator had to override the automated security protocol and manually reset the user permissions after the server crash.

    user controlled
    automaticallyprogrammatically

From manual + -ly.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Level B1 · Intermediate
Frequency Frequent
Updated