Meaning & use
internally
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Meanings
adverbnot comparable
Inside a group, company or system, and not shared with outsiders.
Grammar: Often placed after the verb or at the start of a clause: The matter was handled internally.
Patterns
- handle something internally
- investigate something internally
The company dealt with the complaint internally.
Candidates were advertised internally before the job went public.
The team debated the plan internally for weeks.
adverbnot comparablemedical
On or within the inside of the body, or inside a machine or object.
Grammar: Describes where something happens: bleeding internally, not on the skin.
Patterns
- bleed internally
- take something internally
The patient was bleeding internally after the crash.
This cream must not be taken internally.
The device is cooled internally by a small fan.
adverbnot comparable
In your own thoughts and feelings rather than in what you show.
Grammar: Contrasts with outward behavior: He smiled but was panicking internally.
Patterns
- feel something internally
She stayed calm outwardly but was screaming internally.
He was laughing internally at the mistake.
Common combinations
- handled internally
- Staff discipline is handled internally.
- bleeding internally
- The doctors feared he was bleeding internally.
- promoted internally
- Most managers here are promoted internally.
- circulated internally
- The memo was only circulated internally.
- decided internally
- The price was decided internally before the announcement.
Synonyms and how they differ
- in-house
- In-house is an adverb or adjective for work done within a company, but it does not describe the body or feelings as internally can.
- inwardly
- Inwardly is used for private thoughts and feelings, and it rarely applies to organizations or medicine.
- privately
- Privately stresses that others are not told, whereas internally stresses that it stays inside a defined group.
Opposites
Word family
- internal adjective
- inside something or belonging to the inside
- internalize verb
- to absorb beliefs or feelings as your own
- internalization noun
- the process of absorbing ideas or feelings
- interior noun
- the inside part of a thing
Commonly confused: internally or internationally?
internally vs internationally
Internationally means across many countries. It looks like internally but has nothing to do with being inside a group.
Practice
The airline said the safety report would be reviewed ___ before any public statement.
Choose one answer.
Reviewed internally means checked inside the company. Externally and publicly point the opposite way, and internationally means across countries.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “internally”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.