literally
/ˈlɪ.tə.ɹə.li/ adverb B2- Without overstatement or understatement, or false or misleading words. · He's prone to exaggeration, so don't take what he says literally.· There are literally millions of individual pieces of space debris orbiting Earth.
- With phrasings that might normally be used or understood as figurative: truly; not figuratively; not as an idiom or metaphor. · I didn't have time to repair the wall, so I literally just papered over the cracks.
- Draws attention to a pun or other wordplay involving an idiom. · My daughter's pet rabbit had babies, and now we've literally got rabbits coming out of our ears.
- Used as a general intensifier or dramatiser, sometimes tending towards a meaningless filler. · I had no idea, so I was literally guessing.· I was literally having breakfast when she arrived.
- Used as an intensifier with statements or terms that are in fact meant figuratively and not word for word as stated. · He was so surprised, he literally jumped twenty feet in the air.· On 9/11 people were literally glued to their TV sets.
- Used as a generic downtoner: just, merely. · It's not even hard to make—you literally just put it in the microwave for five minutes and it's done.· It won't take me long to get back, 'cause the store's literally two blocks away.
From the library
In a very few moments it was necessary for Elaine to scramble to her feet, pick up her cloth of gold coverlet and pall of blackest samite and gaze blankly at a big crack in the bottom of her barge through which the water was literally pouring.
I’m literally starving.
Even the triumphant issue of his labours could not save him from reaction after so terrible an exertion, and at a time when Europe was ringing with his name and when his room was literally ankle-deep with congratulatory telegrams I found him a prey to the blackest depression.
That was not literally true.
Learn literally in real texts
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