Literally

English

Adverb

Literally (not comparable)

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

   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.

2. (degree) used as an intensifier for figurative statements: virtually (often considered incorrect; see usage notes)
   • 1827, Sir Walter Scott, Chronicles of the Canongate

     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.

   • 1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

     […] at a time when Europe was ringing with his name and when his room was literally ankle-deep with congratulatory telegrams […]

   • 1993, Wayne W. Dyer, Real Magic, page 193:

     You literally become the ball in a tennis match, you become the report that you are working on […]

3. (UK, colloquial) Used as a generic downtoner: just.

   You literally put it in the microwave for five minutes and it's done.

Notes

"Literally" is the opposite of "figuratively", so many authorities object to the use of literally as an intensifier for figurative statements. For example "you literally become the ball", by the primary sense, would mean actually transforming into a spherical object, while it is likely that the speaker means "figuratively" and is using literally as an intensifier.

Quotations

• For examples of the usage of this term see the citations page.

Synonyms

• (not metaphorically): actually, really
• (as an intensifier): virtually

Antonyms

• (not metaphorically): figuratively, metaphorically, virtually

Thesaurus

absolutely, actually, closely, dead, definitely, direct, directly, even, exactly, expressly, faithfully, in all respects, in every respect, in fact, ipsissimis verbis, just, literatim, plumb, point-blank, positively, precisely, really, right, rigidly, rigorously, square, squarely, straight, strictly, to the letter, truly, undeviatingly, unerringly, verbally, verbatim, verbatim et litteratim, word by word, word for word

Etymology

literal

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈlɪtəɹəli/, SAMPA: /"lIt@r@li/

• Audio (US)

  noicon

  (file)

Translations

not metaphorically

Afrikaans: letterlik (af) Arabic: حرفي (ar) (ḥarfī) Catalan: literalment (ca) Czech: doslova (cs) Dutch: letterlijk (nl) Finnish: kirjaimellisesti (fi), sananmukaisesti (fi) French: texto (fr), mot à mot (fr), littéralement (fr) German: wörtlich (de), buchstäblich (de) Hebrew: באופן מילולי (he), בצורה מילולית (he) (be'tzurah milulith) f.

Italian: letteralmente (it) Polish: dosłownie (pl) Portuguese: literalmente (pt) Romanian: literalmente (ro) Russian: буквально (ru) (bukvál'no) Serbian: bukvalno (sr), doslovno (sr), tacno tako (sr) Spanish: literalmente (es) Swedish: bokstavligen (sv) Urdu: لفظی معنی (ur)