Standard Lemma guide

coldly

adv · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkəʊldli/
  • General-American: kōldʹlē
  • General-American: /ˈkoʊldli/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: K OW1 L D L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

In a cold or uncaring manner; indifferently.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adverb

Meaning 2

in a cold unemotional manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • he killed her in cold blood

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: in cold blood

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English coldliche, caldeliche, perhaps borrowed from Old Norse kaldliga (“coldly”); equivalent to cold + -ly. Displaced Middle English colde (“coldly”), from Old English cealde (“coldly”).

Across languages

Translations

13 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: fredament — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Esperanto: malvarme — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Finnish: kylmästi — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • French: froidement — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Georgian: ცივად (civad) — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Hungarian: hidegen — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Norman: fraidement — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Norwegian Bokmål: kaldt — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: kaldt — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Polish: ozięble — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Polish: oschle — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Portuguese: friamente — in a cold or uncaring manner
  • Spanish: fríamente — in a cold or uncaring manner