skilfully

«skilfully» in Mova's school dictionary: In a way that shows skill and good ability; cleverly and… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adverb (skilfully — UK, Australia, NZ, Ireland; skillfully — USA)

meaning for a pupil

In a way that shows skill and good ability; cleverly and well. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories it describes how a character does something with expert hands or clever thinking: skilfully dribbling a ball, skilfully avoiding a question. In school reports it praises good work. It tells the reader the action was done well, not by luck.

examples

• She skilfully dribbled past three defenders. tree →
• The surgeon skilfully repaired the broken bone. tree →
• The baker skilfully decorated the cake. tree →
• He skilfully changed the subject when we asked about the broken window. tree →
• The story is skilfully written, with a twist at the end. tree →
• The pilot skilfully landed the plane in the wind. tree →

note

Spelling: UK and Commonwealth «skilful, skilfully» (one l after «ski»); US «skillful, skillfully». Adjective: skilful; noun: skill.

In the corpora

• Many blind people use sounds more skilfully, partly because the brain rewires and attention is trained; their ears themselves are not stronger.
• Sing unto Him a new song; play skilfully amid shouts of joy.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «skilfully» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.