Standard Lemma guide

modestly

adv · 3 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.

  • CMU ARPABET: M AA1 D AH0 S T L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

In a modest manner; with humility.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The man bowed modestly and left the dinner table.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: chastely, humbly, meekly, becomingly, continently, correctly, decently, decorously, deservingly, dutifully, duteously, meritoriously, modestly, morally, nobly, rightly, right-mindedly, righteously, virtuously, worthily

Antonyms: none provided

2

adv

Meaning 2

To a small degree.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: mildly, slightly, somewhat, a bit, a little, a little bit, a mite, a smidgen, a smidgeon, a tad, a touch, a trifle, barely, closely, faintly, hardly, imperceptibly, just, kinda, kinda sorta, kind of, low-key, marginally, modestly, nearly, only just, scarcely, sorta, sorta kinda, sort of

Antonyms: none provided

3

adverb

Meaning 3

with modesty; in a modest manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the dissertation was entitled, modestly, `Remarks about a play by Shakespeare'

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: immodestly

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English modest Middle English -ly English -ly English modestly From modest + -ly.

Across languages

Translations

23 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: համեստորեն (hamestoren) — in a modest manner
  • Catalan: modestament — in a modest manner
  • Chinese Mandarin: 謙虛地 /谦虚地 (qiānxū de) — in a modest manner
  • Chinese Mandarin: 審慎地 /审慎地 (shěnshèn de) — in a modest manner
  • Chinese Mandarin: 謙恭地 /谦恭地 (qiāngōng de) — in a modest manner
  • Chinese Mandarin: 簡樸地 /简朴地 (jiǎnpǔ de) — in a modest manner
  • Chinese Mandarin: 端莊地 /端庄地 (duānzhuāng de) — in a modest manner
  • Chinese Mandarin: 適度地 /适度地 (shìdù de) — in a modest manner
  • Dutch: bescheiden — in a modest manner
  • Esperanto: modeste — in a modest manner
  • Finnish: vaatimattomasti — in a modest manner
  • French: modestement — in a modest manner
  • Galician: modestamente — in a modest manner
  • Hindi: सविनय (savinay) — in a modest manner
  • Hungarian: szerényen — in a modest manner
  • Icelandic: með kurt og pí — in a modest manner
  • Italian: modestamente — in a modest manner
  • Latin: modestē — in a modest manner
  • Macedonian: скромно (skromno) — in a modest manner
  • Malayalam: എളിമയോടെ (eḷimayōṭe) — in a modest manner
  • Portuguese: modestamente — in a modest manner
  • Russian: скро́мно (skrómno) — in a modest manner
  • Spanish: modestamente — in a modest manner