Standard Lemma guide

improvingly

adv · 1 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

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1

adv

Meaning 1

In a manner that tends to improve (especially, (dated), to educate or morally better a person).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1856, Eliza Edmondston, Sketches and Tales of the Shetland Islands, Edinburgh: Sutherland & Knox, Chapter 12 “The Fowler,” p. 140, [...] so fascinating and exciting is this method of idling away time which might be much more profitably and improvingly employed, that many of the fishermen frequent the cliffs, and peril their lives in the forbidden pursuit.
  • 1927, H. G. Wells, Meanwhile, New York: George H. Doran, Book II, “View,” § 10, p. 222, There are no newspapers and the broadcasting is given over to twaddle—there was a fellow gassing most improvingly about ants and grasshoppers yesterday—mixed up with slabs of biassed news and anti-strike propaganda.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From improving + -ly.