Log in or Sign up
  1. literally love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adv. In a literal manner; word for word: translated the Greek passage literally.
  2. adv. In a literal or strict sense: Don't take my remarks literally.
  3. adv. Usage Problem Really; actually: "There are people in the world who literally do not know how to boil water” ( Craig Claiborne).
  4. adv. Usage Problem Used as an intensive before a figurative expression.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. In a literal manner or sense; according to the strict import of the word or words; exactly: as, the city was literally destroyed; the narrative is literally true.

Wiktionary

  1. adv. speech act word for word; not figuratively; not as an idiom or metaphor
  2. adv. degree, proscribed used non-literally as an intensifier for figurative statements: virtually (often considered incorrect; see usage notes)
  3. adv. UK, colloquial Used as a generic downtoner: just, merely.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adv. According to the primary and natural import of words; not figuratively.
  2. adv. With close adherence to words; word by word.

WordNet 3.0

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

Etymologies

  1. literal +‎ -ly (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “The title literally translates as "Lord of Light".”

    http://www.religionandspirituality.com

  • “The original French title literally translates as "Howling Metal.”

    Archive 2010-03-01

  • “I think the name literally translates as 'big antlers' thanks to Gaelic Dictionaries Online.”

    It's The Stag's Antlers

  • “Simone, whose subtitle literally translates as "Why the West is not leaning to the Left".”

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

  • “The title literally translates into "Bush's estate is bankrupt across the board," but it can also be translated as "Bush's legacy is bankrupt across the board," as it is at”

    The Moderate Voice

  • “You know … my Father named me 'nina' which in Italian literally translates as 'little girl”

    lazy geisha

  • “The Peruvian-Spanish-Chilean co-production, whose title literally translates as "The Frightened Tit" - an allusion to an indigenous belief that mothers pass their fear on to their children through their breast milk - won the Golden Bear for best picture in Berlin in February.”

    IPS Inter Press Service

  • “Her name literally translates as "The Female Scribe", and in later times she was regarded as a husband or sister of [[Thoth]].”

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en]

  • “Besides, fittingly, the resort sits on the estate of the country's early kings - the name literally translates as "royal meadow", and horses were exercised here.”

    Top stories from Times Online

  • “In the China adverts, a smiling Hsu holds a little yellow chick up to her face above the slogan "vegetarians make chicks happy", though the wording in Chinese literally translates as "Love her, love vegetarianism".”

    Moneycontrol Top Headlines

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

synonyms (6)

Words with the same meaning

  1. literatim
  1. verbatim et literatim
  1. verbatim
  1. really
  1. actually
  1. virtually

antonyms (3)

Words with the opposite meaning

  1. figuratively
  1. metaphorically
  1. virtually

reverse dictionary (290)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. asperse
  2. assiduity
  3. embarrass
  4. polite
  5. repentance
  6. literally
  7. abolish
  8. ac
  9. assail
  10. awkward
  11. banish
  12. bead
  13. conceal
  14. hate
  15. penurious
  16. surprise
  17. join
  18. maiden aunt
  19. extirpate
  20. mark
  21. effusion
  22. elementally
  23. dive
  24. literalism
  25. deflate
  26. hunker down
  27. illuminate
  28. illuminati
  29. lean
  30. leave
  31. compassion
  32. to go down
  33. good cheap
  34. hæcceity
  35. hammer
  36. hardness
  37. killing
  38. king-at-arms
  39. land
  40. chlorophyll
  41. gobemouche
  42. grammalogue
  43. creed-monger
  44. ectenic
  45. kangaroo
  46. meshummad
  47. osmogram
  48. outblaze
  49. outrange
  50. outsee
  51. pachyostosis
  52. perfume
  53. semioxygenated
  54. Weltschmerz
  55. timonist
  56. unballasted
  57. unhardened
  58. unhatched
  1. untilled
  2. untransparent
  3. uplift
  4. upward
  5. Vaishnava
  6. vineyard
  7. weightiness
  8. well-timbered
  9. wince
  10. zest
  11. bedung
  12. beseem
  13. blend
  14. blindness
  15. blitz
  16. butcher
  17. germane
  18. full-sailed
  19. malodorous
  20. manipular
  21. matterless
  22. memoria technica
  23. metaphorically
  24. metaphrase
  25. metaphrast
  26. myriophyllous
  27. n
  28. nebulous
  29. niche
  30. overbear
  31. overleap
  32. palatable
  33. palatableness
  34. pardy
  35. pathometry
  36. penetrant
  37. percolate
  38. perficient
  39. ponderosity
  40. prison
  41. sayid
  42. scripturalist
  43. seesaw
  44. shallowness
  45. skyrocket
  46. stainless
  47. stone-blind
  48. a potiori
  49. bilati-pani
  50. conflagrate
  51. lit.
  52. frazzle
  53. akimbo
  54. à la cuisse
  55. alma mater
  56. aloof
  57. altissimo
  58. a parte ante
  1. a parte post
  2. applot
  3. appoggiato
  4. astray
  5. atilt
  6. au courant
  7. aucupate
  8. bibasic
  9. blushing
  10. boisbrûlé
  11. Bona
  12. boost
  13. brachypleural
  14. brontolith
  15. buttress
  16. by
  17. childbed
  18. circumspect
  19. circumspective
  20. clare constat
  21. clootie
  22. cogito ergo sum
  23. col legno
  24. colligate
  25. come-outer
  26. contextual
  27. Cotswold
  28. counterblast
  29. crestolatry
  30. cum grano salis
  31. curse
  32. dein
  33. denigration
  34. de trop
  35. Dieu et mon droit
  36. disinterment
  37. dopping
  38. ember
  39. enslavement
  40. entomophilous
  41. excudit
  42. exile
  43. fankwai
  44. far-about
  45. flavorless
  46. foulmart
  47. geognosy
  48. illumine
  49. inebriate
  50. inter pocula
  51. lateen
  52. limning
  53. lit
  54. literalizer
  55. long-faced
  56. lukewarmness
  57. implicature
  58. anagram
  1. apostle
  2. to keep at arm's length
  3. buy
  4. down
  5. draw
  6. drop
  7. equivocal
  8. file
  9. forisfamiliate
  10. abaculus
  11. abbreviatio placitorum
  12. abstrich
  13. abyss
  14. acidify
  15. acuate
  16. acuition
  17. ad nauseam
  18. ad patres
  19. monkeyfy
  20. offscour
  21. pastor
  22. vis-a-vis
  23. Biblicist
  24. loan translation
  25. cy pres
  26. paper trail
  27. accident
  28. break
  29. give
  30. realist
  31. tiptoe
  32. decimation
  33. Dies Irae
  34. filago germanica
  35. herba impia
  36. light-fingered
  37. mantra
  38. metaphor
  39. navel-gazing
  40. nee
  41. nimble-fingered
  42. omphaloskepsis
  43. settlement
  44. asvins
  45. boustrophedon
  46. cave in
  47. collapse
  48. colony
  49. equivocation
  50. evasion
  51. fall in
  52. founder
  53. give way
  54. to meet half way
  55. melting
  56. metaphrased
  57. mortgage
  58. nom de guerre
  1. nom de plume
  2. nucleus
  3. oxhead
  4. pantoscopic
  5. para-
  6. pedal
  7. per-
  8. philosophy
  9. pierce
  10. preponderant
  11. rachitis
  12. rankle
  13. to make a dead set
  14. sharp-sighted
  15. socinianism
  16. sow
  17. sully
  18. teocalli
  19. terminus
  20. topic
  21. turn
  22. up
  23. upper
  24. vantage
  25. Volapük
  26. warp speed
  27. word for word
  28. Zollverein
  29. abbot
  30. abhor
  31. abkari
  32. ab ovo
  33. acephali
  34. adieu
  35. admire
  36. agapemone
  37. aggravate
  38. aleatory
  39. allegorize
  40. alto
  41. Ammon
  42. amphiprostyle
  43. amuck
  44. Anglo-Saxon
  45. annunciade
  46. antilegomena
  47. a posteriori
  48. apprehensive
  49. arbor
  50. associate
  51. attempt
  52. aurocores
  53. autochthon
  54. avarice
  55. averse
  56. back
  57. background
  58. balance

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. auto-antonym
  1. cvcvcvccv

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘literally’

  1. Literally

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘literally’.

More lists containing ‘literally’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • milosrdenstvi "There was a sad and melancholy cadence in her voice, corresponding with the strange and interesting romance of her situation. So young, so beautiful, so untaught, so much abandoned to herself, and deprived of all the support which her sex derives from the countenance and protection of female friends, and even of that degree of defence which arises from the forms with which the sex are approached in civilised life,—it is scarce metaphorical to say, that my heart bled for her."

    Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy. Victorian "literally"! Jul 10, 2011

  • blafferty People using this word when they don't actually mean it makes me literally throw up. Bahaha. Apr 27, 2011

  • Prolagus Cf. literal. Jun 24, 2009

  • john “‘That guy I used to know, he’s gone,’ Mr. Biden said of Mr. McCain at the campaign event in Maumee, shaking his head. ‘It literally saddens me,’ added Mr. Biden, who tends to used the word ‘literally’ about a dozen times per speech (literally).�?

    The New York Times, Meanwhile, the Other No. 2 Keeps On Punching, by Mark Leibovich, September 19, 2008 Sep 20, 2008

  • pterodactyl I rise in opposition to the tag "auto-antonym" being applied to this word. Good sirs and madams, I ask you: can we in good conscience allow "literally" to mean "figuratively"?

    Certainly the general public uses the word this way. And under most circumstances, I am all for following the general usage. In this case, though, I say that we must put up a fight. A fight, I tell you!

    If "literally" no longer means "literally", then what shall we use in its place? And even if suitable substitutes can be found, why should we allow ourselves to lose a perfectly good word in the first place?

    Fight the trend, good people. Refuse to define "literally" as "figuratively"! Posterity will thank you.

    May 24, 2008

  • oroboros Actually v. figuratively. May 23, 2008

  • pomegranate I once heard a noted religious leader talk about people "literally kicking themselves out of the Church". Now that would be something to see! Dec 4, 2007

  • cathari I think people might actually mean "practically", though I have no insight as to how this mix-up could have happened. Oct 30, 2007

  • alguien http://literally.barelyfitz.com/ May 24, 2007

  • uselessness I dunno, seems like the whole point of the word literally is to make it clear that you're not using hyperbole. At least, that was its original purpose. I think, if you have to outright TELL someone you're exaggerating, maybe you should practice your exaggeration a little more. It should be obvious without the label. May 24, 2007

  • seanahan When you use literally to mean figuratively, you are speaking hyperbolically. May 24, 2007

  • rawles I support the founding of a coalition to bring the much-neglected but much-needed word "figuratively" back into proper use. May 23, 2007

  • tomsteele No, you did not literally fly out of bed this morning. Dec 24, 2006

Tweets

Looking for tweets for literally.

‘literally’ has been looked up 4891 times, loved by 2 people, added to 33 lists, commented on 13 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.