# Purposely, purposefully, or purposedly? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 10, 2011, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purposely-purposefully-or-purposedly/574153 "2011-03-10T10:17:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BDoors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BDoors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BDoors)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purposely-purposefully-or-purposedly/574153/1 "2011-03-10T10:17:41Z")
How to express the notion of doing something deliberately or on purpose, I mean. Personally, I dislike “purposely”. It just sounds uneducated. “-ly” normally goes on the end of adjectives, not nouns, to form adverbs. “Purposefully”, meanwhile, to me means “determinedly”, “with some larger goal in mind”, rather than merely “on purpose”. So I prefer “purposedly”, meaning “with a particular purpose”. It’s like if you’re doing something in a hurry - you don’t do it “hurrily” or “hurrifully”, you do it hurriedly. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purposely-purposefully-or-purposedly/574153/2 "2011-03-10T10:43:11Z")
> [@BDoors](#): > > How to express the notion of doing something deliberately or on purpose, I mean. Personally, I dislike “purposely”. It just sounds uneducated. “-ly” normally goes on the end of adjectives, not nouns, to form adverbs. > “Purposefully”, meanwhile, to me means “determinedly”, “with some larger goal in mind”, rather than merely “on purpose”. > So I prefer “purposedly”, meaning “with a particular purpose”. It’s like if you’re doing something in a hurry - you don’t do it “hurrily” or “hurrifully”, you do it hurriedly. Purposefully and purposedly have two _ **quite** _ different meanings. Look them up in [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) It’s too late in the evening here for me to do that task for you. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purposely-purposefully-or-purposedly/574153/3 "2011-03-10T10:44:09Z")
Purposely is the only one I’ve heard of used in that way. Purposedly sounds odd, and I’ve never heard it used, although I guess it’s technically correct. Is that pronounced pur-poséd-ly? Purposefully is, as you suggest, a completely different word. Although adverbs are often formed in that way, there is no rule about how they’re formed. Most of the comparison words can be adverbs and don’t end in -ly. ---
**Author:** ![BDoors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BDoors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BDoors)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purposely-purposefully-or-purposedly/574153/4 "2011-03-10T10:58:58Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Purposefully and purposedly have two _ **quite** _ different meanings. > > Look them up in [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) It’s too late in the evening here for me to do that task for you. I already described the different meanings in the OP. But it seems to me that people do often incorrectly use “purposefully” to mean “on purpose”, maybe because like me they find “purposely” unsatisfactory. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Most of the comparison words can be adverbs and don’t end in -ly. I didn’t say that adverbs must end in “-ly”. I said that when they do, they are almost always derived from an adjective, not a noun. I’m struggling to think of any exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purposely-purposefully-or-purposedly/574153/5 "2011-03-11T02:34:18Z")
_Purposely_ is the only correct choice for what I think you mean – to do a thing with a purpose. _Purposefully_ means to do a thing in a purposeful manner – one may move purposefully, but one need not do so even if one has a purpose. _Purposedly_, on the rare occasion that anyone uses it, means to do a thing in a _purposed_ manner, where “purposed” is the past tense of the verb “to purpose,” meaning more or less the same thing as “to intend.” It’s similar, I think, to “determinedly.” And insisting on nonexistent rules to justify mucking with English grammar or usage seldom ends well. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purposely-purposefully-or-purposedly/574153/6 "2011-03-11T03:10:20Z")
“He purposely included a false statement to entrap his enemies.” “He purposefully placed the rock in front of his neighbour’s path.” “He purposedly did time in Nebraska, in '84.” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purposely-purposefully-or-purposedly/574153/7 "2011-03-12T10:37:30Z")
I usually just avoid this mess and use intentionally. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purposely-purposefully-or-purposedly/574153/8 "2011-03-12T15:12:07Z")
This thread has me thinking of porpoises.