What's the difference between maybe and possibly?

Maybe


Definition:

  • (adv.) Perhaps; possibly; peradventure.
  • (a.) Possible; probable, but not sure.
  • (n.) Possibility; uncertainty.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Mike Ashley told Lee Charnley that maybe he could talk with me last week but I said: ‘Listen, we cannot say too much so I think it’s better if we wait.’ The message Mike Ashley is sending is quite positive, but it was better to talk after we play Tottenham.” Benítez will ask Ashley for written assurances over his transfer budget, control of transfers and other spheres of club autonomy, but can also reassure the owner that the prospect of managing in the second tier holds few fears for him.
  • (2) Maybe the world economy goes tits up again, only this time we punish the rich instead of the poor.
  • (3) But what they take for a witticism might very well be true; most of Ellis's novels tell more or less the same story, about the same alienated ennui, and maybe they really are nothing more than the fictionalised diaries of an unremarkably unhappy man.
  • (4) "Maybe dullness is associated with psychic pain," Wallace wrote at one point, "because something that's dull or opaque fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient low-level way, and which most of us spend nearly all our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from."
  • (5) Maybe it’s because they are skulking, sedentary creatures, tied to their post; the theatre critic isn’t going anywhere other than the stalls, and then back home to write.
  • (6) But we sent out reconnoitres in the morning; we send out a team in advance and they get halfway down the road, maybe a quarter of the way down the road, sometimes three-quarters of the way down the road – we tried this three days in a row – and then the shelling starts and while I can’t point the finger at who starts the shelling, we get the absolute assurances from the Ukraine government that it’s not them.” Flags on all Australian government buildings will be flown at half-mast on Thursday, and an interdenominational memorial service will be held at St Patrick’s cathedral in Melbourne from 10.30am.
  • (7) Just last week he said: "Maybe I'll be a bit more chilled about it this year.
  • (8) I’m probably still far too immature, but maybe as I get older I could consider it.
  • (9) Perinatal brain damage produced by early zinc deficiency followed by rehabilitation with adequate zinc appears to be long term, maybe permanent.
  • (10) As cryptographer Matthew Green told the New York Times, 'If we could get $500,000 kicked back to OpenSSL and teams like it, maybe this kind of thing won't happen again."
  • (11) The guy upstairs, I heard he was maybe affiliated with Islamic Jihad, but he wasn't there.
  • (12) We just hope that … maybe she’s gone to see her friend, talk some sense into her,” Renu said, adding that Shamima “knew that it was a silly thing to do” and that she did not know why her friend had done it.
  • (13) Maybe in some senses this is the new face of friendship.
  • (14) On the other hand, maybe Riley is just the beginning.
  • (15) "This is the guy we've all seen in Borders or HMV on a Friday afternoon, possibly after a drink or two, tie slightly undone, buying two CDs, a DVD and maybe a book - fifty quid's worth - and frantically computing how he's going to convince his partner that this is a really, really worthwhile investment."
  • (16) In the end, the emails from citizen scientists nailed the timing: “looks like it started maybe December 2015”; the severity: “I’ve seen dieback before, but not like this”; and the cause: “guessing it may be the consequence of the four-year drought”.
  • (17) Doesn’t it ever need a break?” “Maybe it likes it,” he shoots back, a twinkle in his eye.
  • (18) Musk revealed his love for Kerbal Space Program in a Q&A in Reddit , joking (or maybe not?)
  • (19) Maybe he was simply obeying orders, since Gordon Brown is not about to sanction a radical overhaul of the tripartite system of financial regulation he created.
  • (20) "Maybe that's why they can't afford anywhere bigger: because they're always late for work."

Possibly


Definition:

  • (adv.) In a possible manner; by possible means; especially, by extreme, remote, or improbable intervention, change, or exercise of power; by a chance; perhaps; as, possibly he may recover.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) However, as other patients who lived at the periphery of the Valserine valley do not appear to be related to any patients living in the valley, and because there has been considerable immigration into the valley, a number of hypotheses to explain the distribution of the disease in the region remain possible.
  • (2) Standardization is possible after correction by the protein content of each individual section.
  • (3) The significance of minor increases in the serum creatinine level must be recognized, so that modifications of drug therapy can be made and correction of possibly life-threatening electrolyte imbalances can be undertaken.
  • (4) The possibility that the ventral nerve photoreceptor cells serve a neurosecretory function in the adult Limulus is discussed.
  • (5) In Patient 2 they were at first paroxysmal and unformed, with more prolonged metamorphopsia; later there appeared to be palinoptic formed images, possibly postictal in nature.
  • (6) However, medicines have an important part to play, and it is now generally agreed that for the very poor populations medicines should be restricted to those on an 'essential drugs list' and should be made available as cheaply as possible.
  • (7) The various evocational changes appear to form sets of interconnected systems and this complex network seems to embody some plasticity since it has been possible to suppress experimentally some of the most universal evocational events or alter their temporal order without impairing evocation itself.
  • (8) Coronary arteritis has to be considered as a possible etiology of ischemic symptoms also in subjects who appear affected by typical atherosclerotic ischemic heart disease.
  • (9) This induction is sensitive to actinomycin D but not to protein synthesis inhibitor puromycin, indicating an effect of estradiol at the transcriptional level, possibly mediated by the estrogen receptor.
  • (10) This new observation offers good possibilities to study the metabolism of tryptophan at the cellular level.
  • (11) From these data it is possible to predict theoretically the apparent temperature difference as seen by an infrared scanner or radiometer with a detector of which the spectral detectivity, D (lambda), is known.
  • (12) This is a fascinating possibility for solving the skin shortage problem especially in burn cases.
  • (13) Since 1987, it has become possible to obtain immature ova from the living animal and to let them mature, fertilize and develop into embryos capable of transplantation outside the body.
  • (14) These cells contained organelles characteristic of the maturation stage ameloblast and often extended to the enamel surface, suggesting a possible origin from the ameloblast layer.
  • (15) Four cytotoxic antibiotics, bikaverin, duclauxine, PSX-1 and vermiculine, were examined with respect to their interference with glycolysis and respiration and their possible ionophoric or cytolytic activity.
  • (16) These results are discussed in relation to the possible existence of enzyme-bound intermediates of nitrogen fixation.
  • (17) For viewers in the US, you get the worst possible in-game managerial interview in Mike Matheny, one that's so bad, it's actually great!
  • (18) A possible role for mitochondria in myocardial adenosine production is discussed.
  • (19) Together these observations suggest that cytotactin is an endogenous cell surface modulatory protein and provide a possible mechanism whereby cytotactin may contribute to pattern formation during development, regeneration, tumorigenesis, and wound healing.
  • (20) Results suggest that Cd-MT is reabsorbed and broken down by kidney tubule cells in a physiological manner with possible subsequent release of the toxic cadmium ion.