Word family noun fear fearfulness ≠ fearlessness adjective fearful ≠ fearless fearsome verb fear adverb fearfully ≠ fearlessly
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfearfullyfear‧ful‧ly /ˈfɪəfəli $ ˈfɪr-/ adverb 1 FRIGHTENEDin a way that shows you are afraid She glanced fearfully over her shoulder.2 [+adj/adverb] British English old-fashionedVERY extremely She’s fearfully clever.Examples from the Corpus
fearfully• The lift came and she got into it fearfully.• In the evening, the churches were crammed with people who talked fearfully about the end of the world.• Rosario fearfully clutched her 3-month-old infant as the bombs continued to fall.• These demons are fearfully effective in the movie.• I think it will succeed although it will take ages, for he is fearfully shy, and I am likewise affected.• Wearily, fearfully, they filed out to face the day. 