Reversion of edit Looking for trouble Hardly Simply attempting to improve the grammar on Wikipedia Likely is one of the rare adjectives that ends in ly The others are lovely homely and comely I can t think of any more However you can see the historic connection between these words The sentence called for the use of an adverb not an adjective The two available adverbs are probably and possibly If likely is going to be used then the sentence must read It is likely that in the same manner that one would write It is probable that or It is possible that Likely equates to possible and probable as a part of speech It doesn t equate to probably and possibly