mightily
- 01 C1 Advanced
to do something with a lot of physical power or effort.
in a powerful or vigorous manner; with great physical force.
Simple“The workers struggled mightily to move the heavy stone up the hill.”
In context“The sailors laboured mightily against the rising tide, desperate to secure the vessel before the storm reached its peak.”
UsageOften used to describe physical struggle or heroic effort.
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
used to emphasize that a feeling or quality is very strong.
to a great degree or extent; used as an intensifier for verbs of feeling or adjectives.
Simple“I was mightily impressed by how well the young girl played the piano.”
In context“The board was mightily relieved to discover that the projected losses were far lower than the initial audit suggested.”
UsageCommonly collocates with 'impressed', 'relieved', or 'offended'.
Teacher's tipIn modern conversation, this is often used with a touch of irony or exaggeration.
From Middle English mightili (“with might, powerfully, strongly; forcefully, violently; greatly; etc.”), from Old English meahtiglice (“with might, powerfully, mightily”), from meahtiġ, mihtiġ (“powerful, mighty”) + -līċe (suffix forming adverbs). Mihtiġ is derived from Proto-Germanic mahtīgaz (“mighty”), from mahtiz (“force, strength; ability, power”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European megʰ- (“to be able”)) + -gaz (suffix with the sense ‘being; doing; having’ forming adjectives). By surface analysis, mighty + -ly (suffix forming adverbs).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.