throughly

Throughly is a rarely used adverb that means in a thorough or complete manner. In modern standard English, it is generally considered obsolete or dialectal, with thoroughly as the preferred form.

Etymology and history: The word traces to the adjective thorough, plus the adverbial suffix -ly. In Early Modern English, spellings such as throughly appeared alongside thoroughly as orthographic variants. Over time, the standard spelling settled on thoroughly, and throughly largely fell out of regular use except in archaic or regional texts.

Usage and status: Today, throughly is mainly encountered in historical documents, regional dialect writings, or quotation contexts. Most contemporary dictionaries label it as obsolete or dialectal. In standard prose, it should be replaced with thoroughly to avoid anachronism or nonstandard appearance. For example, modern usage prefers “to examine thoroughly” rather than “to examine throughly.”

Pronunciation and variant forms: If encountered, throughly would typically be pronounced in a way consistent with the base form through, resulting in a pronunciation akin to throu-lee. Some older texts may reflect irregular spellings due to historical variation in the pronunciation of -ough words.

See also: thorough, thoroughly, through, thoroughgoing.

In summary, throughly is a historical or dialectal variant of thoroughly that has largely disappeared from contemporary English outside of archival or regional contexts.