1
[ adverb ] by chance

Examples

"perhaps she will call tomorrow" "we may possibly run into them at the concert" "it may peradventure be thought that there never was such a time"

Used in print

(Bern Dibner, "Oerstad and the Discovery of Electro...)

Oersted 's own earlier experiments were unimpressive , possibly because he had , like other experimenters , laid the conducting_wire across the compass needle instead_of parallel with_it .

(John R. Sargent, "Where To Aim Your Planning for Bigger...)

Marketing in the new decade will be no picnic - for the sixties will present possibly the most intense competitive activity that you have experienced in the last 20 - 25 yr. .

(Arlin Turner, "William Faulkner, Southern Novelist"...)

He is not one to remain more comfortably and unquestioningly within a body of social , cultural , or literary traditions than he was within the traditions - or possibly the regulations - governing his tenure in the post_office at Oxford , Mississippi , thirty-five years ago .

(Irving Fineman, Woman of Valor: The Life of Henrietta...)

Both these youths , who greatly admired Henrietta , were somewhat younger than she , as were also the neighboring Friedenwald boys , who were then studying medicine ; and bright though they all were , they could not possibly compete for her interest with Papa , whose mind - although he never tried to dazzle or patronize lesser lights with it - naturally eclipsed theirs and made them seem to her even younger than they were .

(Edward Jablonski, Harold Arlen Happy with the Blues....)

Arlen is one of the few ( possibly the only ) composer Mercer has been able to work with so closely , for they held their meetings in Arlen 's study .

2
[ adverb ] with a possibility of becoming actual

Synonyms

potentially

Examples

"introducing possibly dangerous innovations" "he is potentially dangerous" "potentially useful"

Used in print

(Kenneth Reiner, "Coping with Runaway Technology"...)

So an objective look at our present procedures may move us to consider seriously this possibly analogous situation .

Related terms

potential potential potential

3
[ adverb ] in a manner or to a degree possible of conceiving

Examples

"is it possibly true?"

4
[ adverb ] to a degree possible of achievement or by possible means

Examples

"they can't possibly get here in time for the funeral?"

Related terms

impossibly possible possible

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