Definition of "chiefly" []

• Above all; especially. (adverb)
• Almost entirely; mainly. (adverb)
• Of or relating to a chief: chiefly responsibilities. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "That many popular historical writers used this term chiefly because it was fashionable, can also be derived from the fact that they did not attribute to it a very distinctive meaning."
• "It is a term chiefly applied to ghosts; but Mr. Gum was a great deal more like a ghost than like a man."
• "In this sense it is nearly synonymous with large j and they are often used indiscriminately, but with some difference of meaning .j for as target a term chiefly employedto detiote"