apart from others
"taken individually, the rooms were, in fact, square"
"the fine points are treated singly"
As individuals, separately, independently
"The members voted individually to approve the new policy without consulting each other."
In plain English: Individually means doing something by yourself rather than as part of a group.
"The students took their tests individually in separate rooms."
Usage: Use individually to describe actions performed by separate people or items without assistance from others. This word is often confused with collectively when contrasting group efforts against personal ones.
The word individually comes from combining the adjective individual with the suffix -ly to form an adverb. It entered English directly through this straightforward grammatical construction rather than evolving from a different root meaning.