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# faintly

«faintly» in Mova's school dictionary: **hard to see, hear or smell** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adverb (faintly)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Weakly, quietly or not clearly, so it is hard to see, hear or smell. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#m1)

2) Slightly; a little: «faintly surprised». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In stories: «She smiled faintly», «music played faintly in the distance», «it smelled faintly of smoke». It tells the reader something is weak or small. Opposite: strongly, loudly, clearly.

### examples

- The stars shone faintly through the clouds. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#x1)
- I could faintly hear the bell. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#x2)
- The room smelled faintly of paint. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#x3)
- She smiled faintly and closed her eyes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#x4)
- He looked faintly annoyed. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#x5)
- The writing was faintly visible on the old paper. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#x6)
- The light glowed faintly at the end of the tunnel. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#x7)
- “Hullo, Peter,” she replied faintly, squeezing herself as small as possible. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/#x8)

### note

From faint (weak; or to pass out). Don't confuse with «feint» (a fake move) or with fainting. «Faintly» about an amount = a little, not a lot.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «faintly» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/faintly/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.