Definition of Literally

1. Adverb. In a literal sense. "He said so literally"

Antonyms: Figuratively
Partainyms: Literal

2. Adverb. (intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration. "Our eyes were literally pinned to TV during the Gulf War"
Language type: Intensifier, Intensive

Definition of Literally

1. adv. According to the primary and natural import of words; not figuratively; as, a man and his wife can not be literally one flesh.

Definition of Literally

1. Adverb. (context: speech act) word for word; not figuratively; not as an idiom or metaphor ¹

2. Adverb. (context: degree proscribed) ''used non-literally as an intensifier for figurative statements'': virtually (often considered incorrect; see usage notes) ¹

3. Adverb. (British colloquial) ''Used as a generic downtoner'': just, merely. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Literally

1. [adv]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Literally

literalisms
literalist
literalistic
literalistically
literalists
literalities
literality
literalization
literalizations
literalize
literalized
literalizer
literalizers
literalizes
literalizing
literally (current term)
literalness
literalnesses
literals
literarily
literariness
literarinesses
literary
literary agent
literary argument
literary composition
literary critic
literary criticism
literary device
literary devices

Literary usage of Literally

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Critique of Pure Reasonby Immanuel Kant, J. M. D. Meiklejohn by Immanuel Kant, J. M. D. Meiklejohn (1878)
"literally Translated. Horace. literally Translated, by SMART. ... literally Translated, with Notes, by HT RIUT, BA In 2 vols. Pliny's H atural History. ..."

2. The Quarterly Review by William Gifford, John Taylor Coleridge, John Gibson Lockhart, Whitwell Elwin, William Macpherson, William Smith, John Murray, George Walter Prothero, Rowland Edmund Prothero Ernle (1858)
"1. fhe Odes and Episodes of Horace, translated literally By Henry George Robinson. 1844, 1855. o. Ttie Odes of Horace, translated into ..."

3. Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana (1897)
"This was literally bidding " good night " to my native land. CHAPTER II. THE first day we passed at sea was the Sabbath. As we were just from port, ..."

4. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann, Edward Aloysius Pace, Condé Bénoist Pallen, Thomas Joseph Shahan, John Joseph Wynne (1913)
"In his " Legatio pro christiania", xii, 11, Athenagoras (117) quotes almost literally sentences taken from the Sermon on the Mount (Matt., v, 44). ..."

5. Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science (1888)
"Papiga omn- kaki (' toad ') is literally ' the rough frog. ... ('woodpecker') means literally ' the pecker.' At Scugog, English is fast superseding the ..."

6. Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution. by Thomas Paine (1791)
"... that it will foon not be literally believed ; and that man will be the happier and better for overcoming the force of prejudice about .it. ..."

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