Degrees and gradations

Thirty-first on this list is largement, and the English word it summons is the wrong one. « Largely » means for the most part, and what it measures is how much of a thing is covered: the work is largely finished, the objection is largely met. Largement never does that job. It measures the distance past a mark, and it always says there is room to spare. Le délai a été largement dépassé is a deadline overrun by a wide margin, not one mostly overrun. Vous avez largement le temps promises plenty of time, largement de quoi manger is more than enough to eat, and il a gagné largement reports a comfortable win rather than a partial one. Read that last sentence as « he largely won » and a victory turns into a doubt. What English actually wants is sitting further down this same page: en grande partie carries « largely », and pour l’essentiel carries « for the most part ». The adjective underneath gives the same warning, since large in French means wide and not big. Whatever is largement is generous, never predominant.