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Literally

//ˈlɪtəɹəli// adv, slang

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    Word for word, exactly as stated.; Without overstatement or understatement, or false or misleading words.

    "He's prone to exaggeration, so don't take what he says literally."

  2. 2
    Word for word, exactly as stated.; With phrasings that might normally be used or understood as figurative: truly; 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."

  3. 3
    Word for word, exactly as stated.; 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."

  4. 4
    As an intensifier.; Used as a general intensifier or dramatiser, sometimes tending towards a meaningless filler. colloquial

    "I had no idea, so I was literally guessing."

  5. 5
    As an intensifier.; Used as an intensifier with statements or terms that are in fact meant figuratively and not word for word as stated. proscribed, sometimes

    "He was so surprised, he literally jumped twenty feet in the air."

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  1. 6
    Used as a generic downtoner: just, merely. colloquial

    "It's not even hard⁠ to make—you literally just put it in the microwave for five minutes and it's done."

Adverb
  1. 1
    (intensifier before a figurative expression) without exaggeration wordnet
  2. 2
    in a literal sense wordnet

Etymology

From Middle English litteraly. See literal and letter. By surface analysis, literal + -ly.

See also for "literally"

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