Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Informally |
InformallyAdverb1. Without formality; "he visited us informally". 2. With the use of colloquial expressions; "this building is colloquially referred to as The Barn". 3. In a causal way; at home; "we'll have dinner en famille". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "informally" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1823. (references) |
Synonyms: InformallySynonyms: colloquially (adv), conversationally (adv), en famille (adv), without formality (adv). (additional references) |
| Antonym: formally (adv). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Informally |
| Specialty definitions using "informally": asymptotically tight bound ♦ big-O notation, book titles ♦ Federal Asset Disposition Association ♦ HUMAN RESOURCE ADVISOR ♦ informal talk ♦ little-o notation ♦ nanobot, NEXTSTEP, NP-complete ♦ omegaCapital ♦ polytope, pseudo-LCO ♦ RFP ♦ sim, state machine, string editing problem ♦ threaded binary tree, triconnected graph. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Sir, I believe that position was informally promised to me. (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Crewmen pose informally on the forward gun platform, in the Philippines, circa 1912. Credit: NAVY. |  | Tells patients at the U.S. Naval Hospital, San Diego, California, to "get a laugh out of life", as he addressed them informally during a visit in June 1943. The Secretary gave special praise to the men in the audience who had fought on Guadalcanal. Credit: NAVY. |
 | Reviews WAVES officers during a visit to the Naval Training Station, San Diego, California, in June 1943. He is seen here chatting informally with Ensign Margaret Campbell. Ensign Bertha Shoves is at right, and Ensign Mary Cave is in the photograph's center. The Training Station's Commanding Officer, Captain Henry C. Gearing, USN, is at left. Credit: NAVY. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Online support groups are places where people can talk informally. (references) | |
You may want to look for other sources of support Talk to other parents of children with cancer informally in the hospital or clinic. (references) | ||
Business | Foreign lawyers cannot act as attorneys in Chinese courts, but may be present informally. (references) | |
Children | Congo | Primary school enrollment rates decreased to less than 50 percent during the year from less than 70 percent in 2000. In public schools, parents are required formally to pay a small fee, but parents often are expected informally to pay teachers' salaries. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Mozambique | The Prime Minister's Information Office continues to monitor press content informally. (references) |
Vietnam | Local officials reportedly informally discourage clergy from entering certain provinces. (references) | |
Economic History | Chad | These products are not produced locally but are imported, often informally, from Asia and from neighboring countries. (references) |
Lebanon | Saad Haddad, thus informally setting up a 12-mile wide "security zone" to protect Israeli territory from crossborder attack. (references) | |
Yemen | Others on the list of 16 were told informally they could return to take advantageof the amnesty, but most remained outside Yemen. (references) | |
Human Rights | United Kingdom | Another 231 cases were settled informally. (references) |
Political Economy | MOROCCO | Children are also employed informally as domestics and usually receive little remuneration. (references) |
Syria | Groups such as these encourage like-minded individuals to gather informally and discuss subjects of common interest, including issues of social and political development that in other fora would be shunned. (references) | |
Trade | Laos | FOREIGN EXCHANGE FOR IMPORTS IS INFORMALLY RATIONED, WITH PREFERENCE ACCORDED IMPORTS OF GASOLINE AND FOOD. (references) |
Burma | Most businesses involved in disputes seek to settle the matter informally, rather than rely on the cumbersome legal system. (references) | |
Norway | Since 70 percent of its trade is with the European Union, government policy has been to informally tie the krone to the euro. (references) | |
Travel | Philippines | Many business deals are completed informally during meals, entertainment, or over a round of golf. (references) |
Mexico | Furthermore, many business contacts may be unavailable during the Christmas holiday season, which informally begins around December 16 with the holding of traditional evening "posadas," or festive gatherings for friends, and extends to January 6, the Day of the Epiphany (Twelfth Night, Day of the Three Kings). (references) | |
Women | Belgium | Despite these laws, most cases of sexual harassment are resolved informally. (references) |
Worker Rights | Sweden | The vast majority of complaints are resolved informally. (references) |
Malaysia | Most child laborers work informally in the plantation sector, helping their parents in the field. (references) | |
Morocco | Children, particularly rural girls, also are employed informally as domestic servants and usually receive little or no payment. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Informally" is generally used as an adverb (general) -- approximately 99.67% of the time. "Informally" is used about 299 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adverb (general) | 99.67% | 298 | 16,826 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.33% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 299 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "informally": informally engaged. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
band e informally leader street | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "informally"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Bulgarian | неформално, неофициално, не по правилата, без официалности (without ceremony), по семейному, интимно (confidentially, familiarly, inly, intimately, nearly). (various references) | |
Chinese | 不拘形式地 (unceremoniously). (various references) | |
Czech | nenucenì (at ease), neformálnì (casually). (various references) | |
Danish | sag afsluttes uden nogen formel beslutning (case disposed of informally). (various references) | |
Dutch | indiening der vorderingen geschiedt door de overlegging van een schriftelijke verklaring (to lodge their claims by writing informally), zonder formele beschikking geseponeerde zaak (case disposed of informally). (various references) | |
French | déclarer ses créances par simple lettre (to lodge their claims by writing informally), affaire classée sans décision formelle (case disposed of informally). (various references) | |
German | zwanglose, formlos (amorphous, casual, formless, informal, shapeless, shapelessly, unceremonious, unceremoniously, unstructured). (various references) | |
Greek | λογοδεσμένοσ (informally engaged). (various references) | |
Italian | senza formalit , senza cerimonie (offhand, offhanded), disinvolto (casual, easy, jaunty, laid back, offhand). (various references) | |
Korean | 약식 으로. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | informallyay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | caso arquivado sem decisão formal (case disposed of informally). (various references) | |
Spanish | asunto archivado sin decisión formal (case disposed of informally). (various references) | |
Swedish | en famille (with one's family). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Informally" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: uniformally. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "informally" (pronounced i'nfô"rmulē) |
| 7 | -f ô" r m u l ē | formally. |
| 6 | -ô" r m u l ē | abnormally, normally. |
| 4 | -m u l ē | abysmally, anomaly, dismally, facsimile, family, gloomily, homily, minimally, multifamily, steamily, subfamily, supremely. |
| 3 | -u l ē | accidentally, actually, additionally, agriculturally, anecdotally, anencephaly, angrily, annually, arbitrarily, architecturally, artfully, artificially, beneficially, bilaterally, blissfully, bodily, botanically, broccoli, brutally, busily, carefully, casually, centrally, cerebrally, cheerfully, chronically, Cicely, circumstantially, civilly, clinically, clumsily, coincidentally, comically, commercially, conceptually, conditionally, confidentially, congressionally, conspiratorially, constitutionally, continentally, continually, contractually, contradictorily, conventionally, cordially, crazily, criminally, critically, culturally, customarily, cynically, delightfully, developmentally, diagonally, diametrically, digitally, jauntily, journalistically, joyfully, judicially, lawfully, lazily, diurnally, dorsally, dreadfully, dutifully, easily, editorially, educationally, eerily, electrically, electronically, emotionally, empirically, environmentally, equally, essentially, eternally, ethically, eventually, exceptionally, experimentally, exponentially, externally, extraordinarily, factually, faithfully, fanatically, fatally, federally, finally, financially, fiscally, fitfully, florally, forcefully, fractionally, frantically, frightfully, frugally, functionally, fundamentally, gainfully, generally, generationally, geographically, giggly, gleefully, globally, governmentally, gracefully, gradually, gratefully, gravelly, gravitationally, greedily, habitually, handily, happily, hastily, haughtily, heartily, heavily, helpfully, hermetically, historically, hopefully, horizontally, hungrily, icily, illegally, impartially, incidentally, incrementally, individually, industrially, initially, institutionally, intellectually, intentionally, internally, internationally, intrinsically, involuntarily, irrationally, legally, liberally, literally, locally, loyally, luckily, magically, magnetically, majestically, manfully, manually, marginally, masterfully, materially, mathematically, meaningfully, medicinally, mentally, mercifully, merrily, methodically, metrically, mightily, militarily, mineralogically, momentarily, monetarily, monopoly, monumentally, morally, mortally, multilaterally, municipally, mutually, nasally, nationally, nattily, naturally, necessarily, noisily, nominally, novelly, nutritionally, occasionally, officially, oligopoly, operationally, optimistically, orally, orchestrally, ordinarily, originally, painfully, parenthetically, partially, pathetically, peacefully, perennially, periodically, peripherally, perpetually, personally, phenomenally, philosophically, physically, pitifully, playfully, politically, potentially, pragmatically, preferentially, preliminarily, presidentially, primarily, procedurally, professionally, proportionally, provincially, provisionally, purposefully, quintessentially, racially, radially, rationally, readily, regally, regionally, regretfully, respectfully, rightfully, ritualistically, romantically, royally, ruefully, sardonically, satisfactorily, scantily, scientifically, seasonally, secondarily, semiannually, sequentially, serenely, severally, sexually, skeptically, skillfully, sleepily, sloppily, socially, specially, speedily, spiritually, statistically, statutorily, steadily, structurally, subliminally, substantially, subtly, successfully, summarily, surgically, symbolically, sympathetically, tactfully, tactically, tangentially, tastefully, tearfully, technically, technologically, temperamentally, temporally, temporarily, terminally, territorially, testily, thankfully, theatrically, theoretically, therapeutically, thoughtfully, totally, traditionally, Tripoli, truthfully, uncannily, unconditionally, unconstitutionally, uncritically, uneasily, unequivocally, unhappily, unilaterally, unintentionally, universally, unlawfully, unnaturally, unnecessarily, unofficially, unsuccessfully, unusually, usefully, usually, virtually, viscerally, visually, vitally, vocally, voluntarily, warily, wearily, wiggly, wilfully, willfully, wishfully, wistfully, wittily, wobbly, woefully, wonderfully, wrongfully. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-f-i-l-l-m-n-o-r-y" | |
-2 letters: formalin, formally, informal, normally. | |
-3 letters: aliform, alimony, allonym, almonry, finally, foamily, frailly, manlily, mollify, morally. | |
-4 letters: fairly, family, firman, firmly, floral, florin, flyman, foliar, formal, formyl, frilly, infall, infamy, inform, mainly, marlin, normal, oilman, orally, ramify. | |
-5 letters: alloy, aloin, amino, amnio, anomy, fairy, filar, fillo, filly, filmy, final, flail, flair, flamy, flora, foamy, folia. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-f-i-l-l-m-n-o-r-y" | |
+4 letters: inflammatorily. | |
+5 letters: informationally. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
