literally
Part of speech: adv
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Etymology tree
Late Latin littera
Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.?
Proto-Italic *-ālis
Late Latin -ālis
Late Latin litterālisbor.
Old French literalbor.
Middle English literal
Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der.
Proto-Germanic *līkąder.
Proto-Germanic *-līkaz
Proto-Germanic *-ê
Proto-Germanic *-līkê
Proto-West Germanic *-līkē
Old English -līċe
Middle English -ly
Middle English litteraly
English literally
From Middle English litteraly. See literal and letter. By surface analysis, literal + -ly.
Inflected forms:
form: more literally
pos: adv
tags: comparative
form: most literally
pos: adv
tags: superlative
form: lit.
pos: adv
tags: abbreviation
form: litterally
pos: adv
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: In a literal manner; exactly as stated, word for word.
pos: adv
examples: 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.
gloss: In a literal manner; exactly as stated, word for word.
pos: adv
examples: When I saw on the news that there would be no school tomorrow because of the snowstorm, I literally jumped for joy, and hit my head on the ceiling fan.
I didn't have time to repair the wall, so I literally just papered over the cracks.
Lights were going out. A raid! A raid! It was a panic, literally, in a whorehouse!
All events became omens; I lost the ability to take anything literally.
[…] Men In Black 3 finagles its way out of this predicament by literally resetting the clock with a time-travel premise that makes Will Smith both a contemporary intergalactic cop in the late 1960s and a stranger to Josh Brolin, who plays the younger version of Smith’s stone-faced future partner, Tommy Lee Jones.
As lawmakers and staff rushed out, aides snatched the boxes containing the Electoral College certificates, making sure that the vandals could not literally steal the results of the election.
gloss: In a literal manner; exactly as stated, word for word.
pos: adv
examples: My daughter's pet rabbit had babies, and now we've literally got rabbits coming out of our ears.
What literally broke the ice that first night was when a 98-year-old retired professor spoke up. “Well, I have a choice of what to think about when I have insomnia at night. Being a lover of mathematics, last night when I couldn't sleep, I decided to calculate the tonnage of ice I delivered as a boy.”
Outside of all the learned institutions of his country, and while employed with his chisel and hammer, as a stone mason, this man literally killed two birds with one stone; for he earned his daily bread and at the same time made himself an eminent geologist, and gave to the world books which are found in all public libraries and which are full of inspiration to the truth seeker.
Profit and corporate giving are, quite literally, two sides of the same coin.
gloss: As an intensifier.
pos: adv
tags: colloquial
examples: I had no idea, so I was literally guessing.
I was literally having breakfast when she arrived.
She was literally like, "What?", and I was literally like, "Yeah".
Literally who is this?
Pearl: Steven, we are not like the No Home Boys. We are literally standing in your home right now.
gloss: As an intensifier.
pos: adv
tags: proscribed
sometimes
examples: He was so surprised, he literally jumped twenty feet in the air.
On 9/11 people were literally glued to their TV sets.
People can't even express their opinions freely in this country any more. Literally 1984!
The house was literally electrified; and it was only from witnessing the effects of her genius that he could guess to what a pitch theatrical excellence could be carried.
You literally become the ball in a tennis match, you become the report that you are working on […]
[O]ne can assume that the millions or billions of ringgit spent on the war against drugs have gone down the drain, literally.
gloss: Used as a generic downtoner: just, merely.
pos: adv
tags: colloquial
examples: 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.
Derived words: legiterally
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: letterlik
lang: Arabic
word: حَرْفِيًّا
roman: ḥarfiyyan
lang: Arabic
word: بِٱلْحَرْف
roman: bi-l-ḥarf
lang: Arabic
word: حَرْفِيَّا
roman: ḥarfiyyan
lang: Armenian
word: բառացիորեն
roman: baṙacʻioren
lang: Catalan
word: literalment
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 按照字面
roman: ànzhào zìmiàn
lang: Czech
word: doslova
lang: Danish
word: bogstavelig talt
lang: Danish
word: bogstaveligt talt
lang: Danish
word: bogstavelig
lang: Danish
word: bogstaveligt
lang: Danish
word: bogstavelig taget
lang: Danish
word: bogstaveligt taget
lang: Dutch
word: letterlijk
lang: Esperanto
word: laŭlitere
lang: Esperanto
word: laŭvorte
lang: Faroese
word: bókstavliga
lang: Finnish
word: kirjaimellisesti
lang: Finnish
word: sananmukaisesti
lang: French
word: littéralement
lang: French
word: textuellement
lang: French
word: texto
lang: French
word: mot à mot
lang: Galician
word: literalmente
lang: Georgian
word: სიტყვასიტყვით
roman: siṭq̇vasiṭq̇vit
lang: Georgian
word: პირდაპირი მნიშვნელობით
roman: ṗirdaṗiri mnišvnelobit
lang: Georgian
word: პირდაპირი გაგებით
roman: ṗirdaṗiri gagebit
lang: German
word: wörtlich
lang: German
word: buchstäblich
lang: Greek
word: κυριολεκτικά
roman: kyriolektiká
lang: Greek
word: κατά γράμμα
roman: katá grámma
lang: Hebrew
word: פְּשׁוּטוֹ כְּמַשְׁמָעוֹ
roman: pshutó kemashma'ó
lang: Hebrew
word: בְּאֹפֶן מִלּוּלִי
roman: beófen milulí
lang: Hungarian
word: szó szerint
lang: Hungarian
word: szabályosan
lang: Hungarian
word: szóról szóra
lang: Icelandic
word: bókstaflega
lang: Italian
word: letteralmente
lang: Japanese
word: 文字通り
roman: mojidōri
lang: Japanese
word: 額面通り
roman: gakumendōri
lang: Latin
word: ad verbum
lang: Macedonian
word: буквално
roman: bukvalno
lang: Malayalam
word: അക്ഷരാർത്ഥത്തിൽ
roman: akṣarāṟtthattil
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: bokstavelig
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: bokstaveleg
lang: Persian
word: لفظا
roman: lafzan
lang: Polish
word: dosłownie
lang: Portuguese
word: literalmente
lang: Romanian
word: literalmente
lang: Russian
word: буква́льно
roman: bukválʹno
lang: Russian
word: досло́вно
roman: doslóvno
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: bukvalno
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: doslovno
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: doslovce
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: tačno tako
lang: Slovak
word: doslova
lang: Spanish
word: literalmente
lang: Spanish
word: literal
lang: Spanish
word: textualmente
lang: Swedish
word: bokstavligen
lang: Swedish
word: bokstavligt talat
lang: Tatar
word: сүзгә-сүз
roman: süzgä-süz
lang: Tatar
word: һич үзгәртмичә
roman: hiç üzgärtmiçä
lang: Tatar
word: сүзен сүзгә
roman: süzen süzgä
lang: Turkish
word: harfiyen
lang: Turkish
word: resmen
lang: Ukrainian
word: буква́льно
roman: bukválʹno
lang: Ukrainian
word: літера́льно
roman: literálʹno
lang: Ukrainian
word: у прямо́му се́нсі
roman: u prjamómu sénsi
lang: Urdu
word: لفظی معنی
lang: Walloon
word: mot po mot
lang: Yiddish
word: ממש
roman: mamesh