predictably

predictably — adverb

1. in the way people had reason to expect before something happened; sometimes with

1.adverbC1
Definition

in the way people had reason to expect before something happened; sometimes with a mildly negative tone to show that the result was no surprise.

Example

Predictably, the front seats were gone ten minutes after ticket sales opened.

sentence adverb commenting on an expected result

After three days without sleep, Ben predictably made mistakes in the lab report.

predictably + verb after a clear cause

Common collocations
  • predictably enough
  • react predictably
  • end predictably
  • predictably late
  • predictably, ...
Synonyms
  • unsurprisingly

    foregrounds the lack of surprise and is often a little more conversational or ironic.

  • inevitably

    stronger; it suggests the result could not be prevented, not just that people saw it coming.

  • naturally

    common in speech; less precise and can also mean 'of course'.

  • typically

    describes what usually happens in general, not one specific expected result.

Antonyms
  • unexpectedly

    for results that happen without warning or prior expectation.

  • surprisingly

    stresses that the outcome caused surprise.

  • oddly

    focuses on strangeness rather than matching a forecast.

Grammar Patterns

Predictably, + clause

subject + predictably + verb

Predictably enough, + clause

Usage Note

Often sentence-initial when the speaker is stepping back to judge a whole event or result. In criticism, it can suggest boring familiarity, as in 'The sequel ended predictably', but the core idea is still that the outcome matched expectations rather than that it was unavoidable.

Common Mistakes

The team predictably would lose after selling its captain.
The team would predictably lose after selling its captain.
place 'predictably' before the main verb or at the start of the sentence, not between the subject and a modal.
Without water, the flowers predictably died in a week.
Without water, the flowers inevitably died in a week.
'predictably' comments on what people expected; 'inevitably' stresses that the result could not be avoided.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adverb/1

'Predictably' says a result matched what people could already see coming. 'Unsurprisingly' is very close, but it focuses more on the speaker's reaction: there is no surprise, and it can sound lightly sarcastic. 'Inevitably' is stronger. It does not just say the result was expected; it says the result could hardly have been avoided. 'Typically' is different again: it describes what usually happens in general, not one specific outcome after particular facts. So you can say 'Predictably, the children were hungry after swimming' when this one event made sense, but 'Children are typically hungry after swimming lessons' when you mean this is a common pattern. Use 'predictably' when expectation is the main point.

predictably ↗unsurprisingly ↗inevitably ↗typically ↗

Common collocations

Adverbs

  • all too predictably
  • entirely predictably
  • perhaps predictably
  • rather predictably

Phrases

  • predictably enough
  • predictably, ...
  • end predictably
  • react predictably

Etymology

LatinEnglish

Formed in English from the adjective 'predictable' and the adverb ending '-ly'. 'Predictable' comes from 'predict', which grew out of Latin 'praedicere', meaning 'to say beforehand'. Over time, the English adverb developed the sense of something happening in a way that matches what people could foresee in advance.