What does daily mean?
Daily is one of those rare English words that works equally well as an adjective, an adverb, and a noun. As an adjective, it describes things that happen or are done every day — a daily walk, a daily allowance — or things measured over a single day, such as a daily wage. As an adverb, it simply means 'each day', as when a commuter says she travels to London daily. As a noun, 'a daily' is chiefly a newspaper published every day, though the plural 'dailies' can also refer to rushes in filmmaking — the unedited footage reviewed after each day's shooting. The word carries connotations of habit, repetition, and ordinariness, which is why phrases like 'the daily grind' evoke routine and sometimes tedium. Derived from the Latin dies ('day'), it is a cousin of 'diurnal', 'meridian', and 'quotidian'. Its flexibility and frequency make it indispensable in both formal writing and casual conversation.
Happening, done, or appearing every day; also relating to a single day.
"He earns his living through daily wages as a labourer."
When modifying a period of time (daily wage, daily rate), the emphasis is on one day rather than recurrence.
On every day; each day.
"The ferry runs daily between the two islands."
A newspaper published every day or every weekday.
"She reads the local daily over breakfast."
In filmmaking, 'dailies' refers to raw footage shot during a single day and reviewed before editing.
The plural applies only to the noun form. It commonly means multiple daily newspapers, or in cinema, the unedited footage from a day of shooting.
"Several national dailies carried the story on their front pages."
The 'daily' newspaper got its name from the same ancient Roman word that gives us 'meridian' and 'diary' — all tracing back to Latin dies, meaning day.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of daily
Daily derives from the Old English adjective dæglīc, formed from dæg ('day') plus the suffix -līc ('-ly'), meaning 'of or belonging to each day'. The root ultimately traces back to Proto-Germanic *dagaz, cognate with Latin dies, which shares the same distant Indo-European ancestor. This makes daily a true relative of words such as 'diurnal', 'meridian', 'journal', and 'diary'. The noun sense referring to a daily newspaper arose in the 19th century as mass-circulation newspapers became a fixture of urban life.
Related word forms
How daily is actually used
Fully standard and neutral in register across British and American English. In informal speech, 'daily' as a noun almost always means a daily newspaper. The phrase 'the daily grind' is a common idiom for tedious everyday work.
Easily confused with daily
A diary is the book in which you record events day by day, while daily describes anything that happens every day — you might write in your diary daily.