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# curiously

adverb (curiously; more curiously, most curiously)

«curiously» in the English dictionary: everyday and in Jewish tradition — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. In a way that shows you want to know or learn about something: «The cat sniffed the box curiously.» [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#m1)
2. Strangely or oddly: «The house was curiously quiet.» [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#m2)
3. (at the start of a sentence) «Curiously, …» means «It is strange that …». [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#m3)

### In the lessons

A how-word used often in stories to show a character looking or asking with interest, and to point out something odd. In Alice in Wonderland Alice looks about her curiously and famously says «Curiouser and curiouser!», a playful wrong form she made up when things got stranger and stranger.

### Examples

- Alice peeped curiously into the little door. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#x1)
- The puppy curiously sniffed the new toy. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#x2)
- The street was curiously empty that morning. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#x3)
- Curiously, nobody had heard the bell. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#x4)
- She looked curiously at the strange box. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#x5)
- The Mole asked curiously what lived in the Wild Wood. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#x6)
- As Dorothy entered they looked at her curiously, and one of them whispered: [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/#x7)

### Note

From «curious» + «-ly». Two senses: interested (looked curiously) and strangely (curiously quiet). Noun: curiosity. «Curiouser» is not correct English: it is Alice's joke from Lewis Carroll.

## In Jewish tradition

Interpretation: In Psalm 139 it means skilfully and with great care. Tradition reads it as God's careful work in shaping each person, hidden from sight. In the primary lessons: A how-word used often in stories to show a character looking or asking with interest, and to point out something odd. In Alice in Wonderland Alice looks about her curiously and famously says «Curiouser and curiouser!», a playful wrong form she made up when things got stranger and stranger.

### Examples

- It derives from the root נפ״שׁ NPSh, having to do with breathing, refreshing, and resting; its etymological relationships with curiously similar roots like נשׁ״ם NShM ‘to breathe, pant’, נשׁ״ף NShP ‘to blow’, and נשׁ״ב NShB ‘to blow’ are unclear. (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation) [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/C/curiously/#x1)
- the Pythagorean philosophy, corresponds curiously to Joseph ben Uziel who wrote down the Sefer Yetzirah. (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914)) [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/C/curiously/#x2)
- My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. (Writings PSA.139.15, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/C/curiously/#x3)

### Note

From «curious» + «-ly». Two senses: interested (looked curiously) and strangely (curiously quiet). Noun: curiosity. «Curiouser» is not correct English: it is Alice's joke from Lewis Carroll.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «curiously» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/curiously/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«curiously» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/curiously.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of «curiously» in the Judaism dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/judaism/C/curiously/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«curiously» in the Judaism dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/judaism/w/curiously.html) on Mova free.