fiercely

American

[feers-lee] / ˈfɪərs li /

adverb

in a menacing, violent, or forceful way.

The bear stood on his back paws, growling fiercely.
Currently, some 20 wildfires are raging fiercely through the state.
in an eager or intense way.

Isaiah has developed into a fiercely competitive soccer player.

Other Word Forms

overfiercely adverb
unfiercely adverb

Etymology

Origin of fiercely

fierce ( def. ) + -ly

Vocabulary lists containing fiercely

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But Elham, a contentious and fiercely competitive student, suspects that Marjan’s zeal for anglophone culture, including Hollywood romantic comedies, masks a resentment for the Iranian life she is now stuck with.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2026

In the US, AI firms fiercely guard their intellectual property, but in China, there's been a greater "open source" approach.

From BBC • Apr. 7, 2026

Samsung’s stellar results bode well for Micron, even as the two companies compete fiercely.

From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026

While the broader tech industry fiercely debates whether the future of AI lies in transformers, diffusion models, or newer concepts, PrismML’s mathematical framework can be applied to any of them, according to Hassibi.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026

“Well, it’s not going to be us!” cried Shifa, her hair whipping fiercely around her head and her jaw set and determined.

From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023