literally

adverb

1. 1

   In a literal manner; exactly as stated, word for word. Without overstatement or understatement, or false or misleading words.

   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.

2. 2

   In a literal manner; exactly as stated, word for word. 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.

   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.

3. 3

   In a literal manner; exactly as stated, word for word. 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.

   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.

4. 4

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

   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?

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.

   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.

6. 6

   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.

Forms

comparative

more literally

superlative

most literally