Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. In actual truth or fact: The horseshoe crab isn't really a crab at all.
- adv. Truly; genuinely: That was a really enjoyable evening.
- adv. Indeed: Really, you shouldn't have done it.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- in a real manner; with or in reality; in fact, and not in appearance only; in truth; actually; truly.
- Indeed; to tell the truth; as a fact: often used as a slight corroboration of an opinion or declaration, or interrogatively or exclamatorily to express slight surprise.
- Synonyms Truly, absolutely, certainly, verily, positively.
- Royally; in a royal or regal manner; like a king.
- To form or arrange again; recompose.
Wiktionary
- adv. modal Actually; in fact; in reality.
- adv. informal, as an intensifier Very (modifying an adjective); very much (modifying a verb).
- interj. Indicating surprise at, or requesting confirmation of, some new information; to express skepticism.
- interj. colloquial, sarcastic Indicating that what was just said was obvious and unnecessary; contrived incredulity
- interj. colloquial Indicating affirmation, agreement.
- interj. Indicating displeasure at another person's behaviour or statement.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. obsolete Royally.
- adv. In a real manner; with or in reality; actually; in truth.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. in actual fact
- adv. in accordance with truth or fact or reality
- adv. in fact (used as intensifiers or sentence modifiers)
- adv. used as intensifiers; `real' is sometimes used informally for `really'; `rattling' is informal
Etymologies
- real + -ly (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Thank ghod it's not really a mainstream news organization, or the markets would *really* tank.”
“I think you really need to ponder how much of your reaction is based off of what is _really_ there and how much is off inference, based on conjecture that is heavily drawn from someone elses biases and hangups and both bolstered and watered down by anything as murky and prone to misunderstanding as the written word.”
“ANG itz funny thought i was the only one that noticed that Transformers 2 didnt really have a sensible plot ...everyone seemed to love it ....well audience members ..really good to come on here and see my fellow film geeks call it out like it izzz !”
Transformers 3 Update: Shoot Date, Script and 3D Status | /Film
“This headline really, * really* needs to be changed.”
“For the folks who are * really, really* afraid - as in elderly and retired - of the economic fallout that is sure to come, this taps into their cold war responses.”
“All the GOP crap like these makes me * really, really, really* want this election to be over today (by destroying them to pieces, of course).”
“Sounds as if the really right-wing nuts are looking at him as preventing their ability to * really* go after Obama --- wishes that Barracuda Sarah were at the top of the ticket and able to really take up the fight, no holes barred!”
Note To News Orgs: McCain And Palin Are Largely Responsible For Unhinged Tone At Their Rallies
“We had been friends since her sons were little guys, long before she and I morphed from really, really hot (okay, maybe just one \ "really\") into women of the vintage marketers target when they\'re hawking hundred dollar face creams.”
Marcella Mroczkowski: The GOP, Hooked on Hate: Three Traits All Toxic Political Movements Share
“It's not so much 'been there' but more 'really seen it', and I mean *really* seen it.”
“It wasn't the *most* beautiful cake I've seen not many from that show are, just because of how difficult it can be to make something within their time limits, but it really felt more like a gift to KV, and I *really* liked that!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘really’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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FUN - Beatles song titles
Typical words from Beatles song titles. Can you recreate the titles?
(Grammatical words have been omitted)polythene, Sun King, rhythm and blues, taxman, tripper, monkey business, mailman, matchbox, rock and roll, ooh, blue jay, reprise and 388 more...
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US - What is Bill talking about - Sep...
The 100 most frequent words of Bill Clinton’s Speech to the Democratic National Convention
america, american, arithmetic, attacked, barack, believe, better, bill, budget, care, class, college and 86 more...
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EN - intensifiers
absolutely, acutely, amply, astonishingly, awfully, certainly, considerably, dearly, decidedly, deeply, eminently, emphatically and 32 more...
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The Over-Worked "Very"
Synonyms for the word "very"
absolutely, actually, acutely, amazingly, assuredly, astonishingly, certainly, decidedly, desperately, downright, emphatically, exceedingly and 43 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
Favorites
ostensibly, surreptitiously, seriously, apparently, vociferous, guitar, asphalt, glee, glitter, fascinating, asynchronous, cunt and 128 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1493 more...
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Words That Start With R
relationship, really, ration, ravenous, recipe, rest, range, radar, radiate, ranch, real, responsible and 2 more...
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banned
alot, woulda, really, like, um, random, okay, totally, sort of, in my mind, would of, sort've and 13 more...
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Words I suspect myself of overusing
amazing, intrinsic, incredibly, fascinating, totally, completely, definitely, fantastic, absolutely, remotely, really, hitherto and 16 more...
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loathsome
guy, stuff, random, really, sort of, merely, outy, utilize, thing, facilitate, ginormous
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EU - What was Joao talking about in 2...
The 100 most frequent words in Joao Barroso's "State of the European Union" address in September 2011
working, treaty, promote, problem, people, necessary, national, member, market, greece, future, economy and 87 more...
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Fairly Unnecessary Modifiers I Use Qu...
Honestly, it's really quite common for any given person to have a number of phrases that they toss into a sentence, whether it's necessary or not. As such, I thought that it'd be reasonable for me ...
fairly, often, as such, quite, really, unnecessarily, definitely, fantastically, way back when, truly, any given, understandably and 11 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for really.
milosrdenstvi I have really rather a tendency to overuse this word -- not so much as an intensifier really than as an offset for the parts of my sentences. Mar 19, 2009
pterodactyl See this map for American pronunciation. Apr 10, 2008
uselessness Do you really? ;-) Oct 31, 2007
kalli Thing is, Really isn't so terrible. Really quite useful sometimes but so often really abused. I even do it myself sometimes. For shame. Oct 31, 2007
oroboros Well, I rilly rilly like it! :oP Sep 9, 2007
reesetee Really. *arched eyebrow* Sep 9, 2007
seanahan Really? Really, you listed this as a word, really? Sep 9, 2007