chiefly Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adverb for the most part
    principally; in the main; mainly; primarily.
    • he is mainly interested in butterflies

WordNet


Chief"ly adverb
Definitions
  1. In the first place; principally; preëminently; above; especially.
    Search through this garden; leave unsearched no nook; But chiefly where those two fair creatures lodge. Milton.
  2. For the most part; mostly.
    Those parts of the kingdom where the . . . estates of the dissenters chiefly lay. Swift.

Webster 1913