literally
/ˈlɪ.tə.ɹə.li/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.91 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
As an intensifier.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH-der. Old Latin leitera Latin līterader.? Proto-Hellenic *dipʰtʰérā? Ancient Greek διφθέρᾱ (diphthérā)bor. Etruscan [Term?]bor.? Latin littera Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Late Latin litterālisbor. Old French literalbor. Middle English literal Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly Middle English litteraly English literally From Middle English litteraly. See literal and letter. By surface analysis, literal + -ly.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈlɪ.tə.ɹə.li/
- British English: /ˈlɪ.tə.ɹə.li/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more literally (comparative)
most literally (superlative)
lit. (abbreviation)
litterally (alternative, obsolete)