literally
adv/ˈlɪtəɹəli/UK/ˈlɪtəɹəli/US
Etymology
From Middle English litteraly. See literal and letter. By surface analysis, literal + -ly.
- inherited from litteraly
Definitions
Word for word, exactly as stated.
- 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.
As an intensifier.
- 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".
Used as a generic downtoner
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.
The neighborhood
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for literally. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA