seriouslyadverb
uk/ˈsɪə.ri.əs.li/us/ˈsɪr.i.əs.li/seriously adverb (BADLY)
B1 badly or severely:
Badly cooked shellfish can make you seriously ill.
He wasn't seriously injured - he just got a few cuts and bruises.
More examples
- I seriously think she'll go crazy if she doesn't have a holiday soon.
- I would seriously consider moving if I had a child.
- Are you seriously telling me that you think you're fat?
- No but seriously, I wouldn't worry about that if I were you.
- She isn't seriously thinking of telling him, is she?
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Serious and severe
- acute
- critical
- critically
- desperate
- dire
- egregious
- grave
- gravity
- grievous
- heaviness
- heavy
- mortal
- serious
- severely
- severity
- stiff
- stiffness
- swingeing
- terminal
- utmost
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seriously adverb (NOT JOKING)
B2 in a serious way, not joking:
Seriously now, did he really say that or are you just being silly?
You're not seriously thinking of leaving, are you?
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Lacking humour
- beyond
- beyond a joke idiom
- earnest
- humourless
- joke
- laugh
- lightly
- mirthless
- po-faced
- poker-faced
- rofl
- serious
- sober
- solemnity
- sombre
- starchily
- starchy
- take a joke idiom
- turgid
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seriously adverb (NEEDING ATTENTION)
take sb/sth seriously
More examples
- You don't take me seriously any more!
- We have to take complaints like this very seriously.
- We take this sort of thing very seriously indeed.
- Doctors will always take this symptom seriously.
- I was joking - don't take me so seriously!
B2 to consider a person, subject, or situation to be important or dangerous and worth your attention or respect:
The police have to take any terrorist threat seriously.
You don't take anything seriously, do you? It's all one big joke to you.
She's sick of being seen as a sex symbol and wants to be taken seriously as an actress.
These young actors take themselves so seriously!
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Very important or urgent
- all-important
- arch
- at all cost(s) idiom
- be a matter of life and/or death idiom
- burning
- chief
- considerable
- critical
- major league
- make the world go around/round idiom
- materially
- minor league
- mission-critical
- prized
- prominent
- radical
- sacred
- salient
- serious
- substantial
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seriously adverb (EXTREMELY)
informal very:
They do some seriously good desserts there.
That boy is seriously stupid.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Linguistics: very & extreme
- abject
- awful
- badly
- beyond
- classic
- classical
- devastating
- drop dead! idiom
- eminently
- esp
- especially
- heartily
- impossibly
- perfect
- sheer
- specially
- supremely
- thoroughly
- whole
- wide
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