intimately

[ in-tuh-mit-lee ]

adverb

1. in a way that entails, assumes, or suggests a close, warm, trusting personal relationship:

   He was quick to rebuke others, but only those he knew intimately and loved dearly.

   Churchill spoke intimately and easily over the wireless to his own people during the war.

2. in a way that arises from long or frequent direct personal experience:

   Cycling acquaints you intimately with every bump, slice, crease, divot, ledge, ripple, and pothole in a street.

3. in a way that affords or encourages privacy, coziness, closeness of interaction, etc.:

   The small tables are so that people can converse more intimately, even among a larger group.

   The beautifully renovated 150-seat theater offers an intimately scaled setting with state-of-the-art acoustics.

4. in a way that involves a close union or connection:

   Many of the ailments seen in the inpatient service are intimately linked to the malnutrition plaguing the region.

5. in a way that involves or suggests sex:

   Posts must not contain name-calling, profanity, or intimately explicit material.

   Chlamydia is an intimately transmitted infection.

6. in a deep and detailed way:

   Her letters and journals reveal a woman intimately involved in the day-to-day happenings of the school.

7. in the innermost depths of one’s mind or heart:

   It has given me an opportunity to share ideas, thoughts, and intimately held beliefs with others equally interested in deeper questions.

8. next to the skin, as underclothing, wigs, etc.:

   Please read our exchange policy carefully; these are quality garments that are worn intimately and hence cannot be exchanged or returned.

Word History and Origins

Origin of intimately¹

intimate ¹( def ) + -ly

Example Sentences

Instead, what transpired were conversations in which strangers shared freely, and intimately.

From Los Angeles Times

All of these stories, honestly and intimately told, reveal the truth and the joy of our lives.

From Los Angeles Times

Under Trump, the surveillance state will get into the act even more intimately than it is now.

From Salon

But the magic of my walk — stretches of different trails, patchworked together, leading from Cadman Drive to Coolidge Trail to Hogback Trail to Dante’s View to Mount Hollywood — comes from my knowing it so intimately.

From Los Angeles Times

But this betrayal, for Hitler, was intimately connected to the Great Replacement Theory, via the introduction of Black soldiers in the French army subsequently occupying the Rhineland, the so-called “Black Horror on the Rhine.”

From Salon

Related Words

• informally
• personally