comparatively

From comparative + -ly.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpæɹ.ə.tɪvli/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəmˈpæɹ.ə.tɪvli/

• Audio (US, Mary–marry–merry merger):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧par‧a‧tive‧ly

comparatively (comparative more comparatively, superlative most comparatively)

1. In a comparative manner.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     And yet I suppose that my life has been, comparatively speaking, a happy one.

   • 1956 April, K. H. Rudolph, “Fun with "'Bradshaw"”, in Railway Magazine, page 253:

     Railway grouping had caused some peculiarly Scottish phraseology to disappear, though the note "Stops on timous notice to the guard" survived until comparatively recently.

2. When compared to other entities.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     Never did I see a more dreary and depressing scene. Miles on miles of quagmire, varied only by bright green strips of comparatively solid ground[.]

   • 2019 February 7, Richard F. Weingroff, “The D.C. Freeway Revolt and the Coming of Metro: Part 5 - After the Court Revolt”, in Federal Highway Administration‎^[1], archived from the original on 23 October 2025, page 61‎^[2]:

     In freewayless areas like the Northwest, traffic jams are comparatively fewer – encouraged by the lack of a highway, more people have been riding buses.

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “comparatively”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “comparatively”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.