haltingly

adverb

as in hesitantly

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of haltingly In Vietnamese director Lê Bảo’s new film, an extended family confronts various rifts and estrangements in its ranks; years of silence must give way, slowly and haltingly, to communication. — Guy Lodge, Variety, 10 Aug. 2026 Law-enforcement officials in Minnesota are—albeit haltingly—beginning to move forward with investigations and prosecutions on their own. — Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic, 6 July 2026 Root listens intently and then responds, initially haltingly. — James Wallace, New York Times, 22 May 2026 The game started to percolate here, but only haltingly. — Kansas City Star, 15 Feb. 2026 In O’Sullivan’s story these two come together, however haltingly at first, out of necessity for both just to go on and find a semblance of their lives without Callie. — Pete Hammond, Deadline, 13 Feb. 2026 Fiona’s neighbors get their own thin plots, broadening but not deepening the world of a show that moves haltingly towards a cliffhanger in its scant, 7-episode first season and so presumably means to continue. — Judy Berman, Time, 4 Dec. 2025 That test soon divides matter, even for a far from sensitive ear, into what reads well & what reads tamely, haltingly, jerkily, lopsidedly, top-heavily, or otherwise badly. — Ben Yagoda, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025 As the world lost its CO2 blanket over this age of mammals, though, and the world chilled, grasslands, having invented a new form of photosynthesis adapted to this drier, lower-CO2 world, haltingly but inexorably took over much of the Earth. — Peter Brannen, Big Think, 28 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for haltingly
  1. hesitantly
  2. tentatively
  3. slowly
Adverb
  • In Broad Strokes, Cohen advances her character further toward a new frontier, though gently and hesitantly.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 28 July 2026
  • The many attending assistants around her eventually disperse — a little hesitantly because Sam is in the middle of preparing a new show — and the two withdraw to Sam’s cavernous studio.
    — Jake Coyle, Boston Herald, 24 Apr. 2026
Definition of hesitantly
Adverb
  • Power outages prevented Lake Central schools from reopening, but officials are tentatively eyeing Monday for students to return.
    — Carole Carlson, Chicago Tribune, 15 Aug. 2026
  • South Carolina would be first, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and then Virginia, under the calendar tentatively approved by the Democratic National Committee leaders.
    — Juhi Doshi, ABC News, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of tentatively
Adverb
  • Storms stretched from the Plains to Ohio early Friday morning and will slowly start to sink south and ease up by the afternoon.
    — Dalia Faheid, CNN Money, 14 Aug. 2026
  • The Gordon Road Stand, the oldest in the EFL and barely 30 yards wide, was still standing, albeit slowly rotting away after being closed in the wake of the Bradford City fire disaster that claimed 56 lives in 1985.
    — Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of slowly

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halting
haltingly
halts
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Cite this Entry

“Haltingly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/haltingly. Accessed 20 Aug. 2026.

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