View source for literally

==English==

===Alternative forms===
* {{l|en|lit.}} {{q|abbreviation}}
* {{l|en|litterally}} {{q|obsolete}}

===Etymology===
From {{inh|en|enm|litteraly}}; equivalent to {{af|en|literal|-ly|id2=adverbial}}.

===Pronunciation===
* {{IPA|en|/ˈlɪtəɹəli/|/ˈlɪtɹəli/|/ˈlɪt͡ʃɹəli/|a=UK}}
* {{audio|en|LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-Literally.wav |a=UK}}
* {{IPA|en|/ˈlɪtəɹəli/|/ˈlɪtɹəli/|/ˈlɪɾəɹəli/|a=US}}
* {{audio|en|En-us-literally.ogg|a=US}}

===Adverb===
{{en-adv}}

# [[word for word|Word for word]]; not [[figuratively]]; not as an [[idiom]] or [[metaphor]]; without overstatement, understatement, euphemism, or dysphemism.
#: {{syn|en|actually|really|unfiguratively|unmetaphorically|Thesaurus:actually}}
#: {{ant|en|figuratively|idiomatically|metaphorically|virtually}}
#: {{hypo|en|overliterally}}
#: {{cot|en|etymonically}}
#: {{ux|en|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.}}
#* {{quote-book|en|passage=Lights were going out. A raid! A raid! It was a panic, '''literally''', in a whorehouse!|page=142|title=Vice in Bombay|author=Allen V. Ross|publisher=Tallis Press|location=London|year=1969}}
#* {{RQ:Coupland X|chapter=Dead at 30 Buried at 70|passage=All events became omens; I lost the ability to take anything '''literally'''.}}
#* {{quote-journal
|en
|date=May 24, 2012
|author=Nathan Rabin
|title=Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3
|work=The Onion AV Club
|url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/men-in-black-3,75576/
|page=
|passage={{...|Sequels to fish-out-of-water comedies make progressively less sense the longer a series continues. By the time Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles rolled around in 2001, 15 years after the first Crocodile Dundee became a surprise blockbuster, the title character had been given an awfully long time to grow acclimated to those kooky Americans.}} Men In Black 3 finagles its way out of this predicament by '''literally''' resetting the clock with a time-travel premise that makes Will Smith both a contemporary intergalactic cop in the late 1960s and a stranger to Josh Brolin, who plays the younger version of Smith’s stone-faced future partner, Tommy Lee Jones.}}
#* {{quote-journal|en|author=Luke Broadwater; Emily Cochrane|title=Inside the Capitol, the Sound of the Mob Came First|work=The New York Times|date=2021-01-07|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/photos-capitol-building-protesters.html|issn=0362-4331|passage=As lawmakers and staff rushed out, aides snatched the boxes containing the Electoral College certificates, making sure that the vandals could not '''literally''' steal the results of the election.}}
# {{lb|en|degree|figuratively|proscribed|contranym}} {{non-gloss|Used non-literally as an [[intensifier]] for figurative statements:}} [[virtually]], [[basically]], [[so to speak]]
#: {{syn|en|virtually}}
#: {{ux|en|He was so surprised, he '''literally''' jumped twenty feet in the air.}}
#: {{ux|en|My daughter's pet rabbit had babies, and now we've '''literally''' got rabbits coming out of our ears.}}
#: {{ux|en|On 9/11 people were '''literally''' glued to their TV sets.}}
#* {{quote-book
|1=en
|year=1827
|author=[[w:Walter Scott|Sir Walter Scott]]
|title=Chronicles of the Canongate
|chapter=Appendix to Introduction
|url=http://gutenberg.readingroo.ms/1/8/2/1828/1828.txt
|passage=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.
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210615124637/https://gutenberg.readingroo.ms/1/8/2/1828/1828.txt
|archivedate=15 June 2021
}}
#* {{quote-text|en|year=1993|author=[[w:Wayne Dyer|Wayne W. Dyer]]|title=Real Magic|page=193
|passage=You '''literally''' become the ball in a tennis match, you become the report that you are working on {{...}}}}
#* {{quote-journal|en|date=22 April 2017|journal=New Straits Times|location=Malaysia|page=20
|passage=[O]ne can assume that the millions or billions of ringgit spent on the war against drugs have gone down the drain, '''literally'''.}}
# {{lb|en|colloquial}} {{n-g|Used to intensify or dramatize non-figurative statements:}} [[aptly]], [[indubitably]]
#: {{ux|en|I had no idea, so I was '''literally''' guessing.}}
#: {{ux|en|I was '''literally''' having breakfast when she arrived.}}
#: {{ux|en|She was '''literally''' like, "What?", and I was '''literally''' like, "Yeah".}}
#: {{ux|en|'''Literally''' who is this?}}
#* {{quote-av|en|year=2015|title=w:Steven Universe|episode=On the Run|passage=Pearl: Steven, we are not like the No Home Boys. We are '''literally''' standing in your home right now.}}
# {{lb|en|colloquial}} {{non-gloss|Used as a generic [[downtoner]]:}} [[just]], [[merely]].
#: {{syn|en|merely|Thesaurus:merely}}
#: {{ux|en|It's not even hard⁠ to make—you '''literally''' just put it in the microwave for five minutes and it's done.}}
#: {{ux|en|It won't take me long to get back, cause the store's '''literally''' two blocks away.}}

====Usage notes====
* {{m|en|literally|Literally}} is the opposite of {{m|en|figuratively}} and many authorities object to the use of {{m|en|literally}} as an intensifier for figurative statements. For example “you ''literally'' become the ball”, without any figurative sense, means actually transforming into a spherical object, which is clearly impossible. Rather, the speaker is using {{m|en|literally}} as an intensifier, to indicate that the [[metaphor]] is to be understood in the strongest possible sense. This type of usage is common in informal speech (“she ''literally'' broke his heart” referring to the strength of the {{m|en|heartbreak}}, not actual cardiovascular trauma). Another word used similarly is {{m|en|veritably}}.

====Translations====
{{trans-top|not metaphorically}}
* Afrikaans: {{t+|af|letterlik}}
* Arabic: {{t|ar|حَرْفِيًّا}}, {{t|ar|بِٱلْحَرْف}}
*: Hijazi Arabic: {{t|acw|حَرْفِيَّا|tr=ḥarfiyyan}}
* Armenian: {{t+|hy|բառացիորեն}}
* Catalan: {{t+|ca|literalment}}
* Chinese:
*: Mandarin: {{t+|cmn|按照字面|tr=ànzhào zìmiàn}}
* Czech: {{t+|cs|doslova}}
* Danish: {{t|da|bogstavelig talt}}
* Dutch: {{t+|nl|letterlijk}}
* Esperanto: {{t|eo|laŭlitere}}, {{t|eo|laŭvorte}}
* Faroese: {{t|fo|bókstavliga}}
* Finnish: {{t+|fi|kirjaimellisesti}}, {{t|fi|sananmukaisesti}}
* French: {{t+|fr|littéralement}}, {{t+|fr|textuellement}}, {{t+|fr|texto}}, {{t+|fr|mot à mot}}
* Galician: {{t|gl|literalmente}}
* Georgian: {{t+|ka|სიტყვასიტყვით}}, {{t|ka|პირდაპირი მნიშვნელობით}}, {{t|ka|პირდაპირი გაგებით}}
* German: {{t+|de|wörtlich}}, {{t+|de|buchstäblich}}
* Greek: {{t+|el|κυριολεκτικά}}, {{t+|el|κατά γράμμα}}
* Hebrew: {{t|he|פְּשׁוּטוֹ כְּמַשְׁמָעוֹ|tr=pshutó kemashma'ó}}, {{t|he|בְּאֹפֶן מִלּוּלִי|tr=beófen milulí}}
* Hungarian: {{t+|hu|szó szerint}}, {{t+|hu|szabályosan}}, {{q|rendering a text}} {{t|hu|szóról szóra}}
* Icelandic: {{t+|is|bókstaflega}}
* Italian: {{t+|it|letteralmente}}
* Japanese: {{t+|ja|文字通り|tr=mojidōri}}, {{t|ja|額面通り|tr=gakumendōri}}
* Latin: {{t|la|ad verbum}}
* Macedonian: {{t|mk|буквално}}
* Malayalam: {{t|ml|അക്ഷരാർത്ഥത്തിൽ}}
* Norwegian:
*: Bokmål: {{t|nb|bokstavelig}}
*: Nynorsk: {{t|nn|bokstaveleg}}
* Persian: {{t|fa|لفظا|tr=lafzan}}
* Polish: {{t+|pl|dosłownie}}
* Portuguese: {{t+|pt|literalmente}}
* Romanian: {{t+|ro|literalmente}}
* Russian: {{t+|ru|буква́льно}}, {{t+|ru|досло́вно}}
* Serbo-Croatian: {{t+|sh|bukvalno}}, {{t+|sh|doslovno}}, {{t|sh|doslovce}}, {{t|sh|tačno tako}}
* Slovak: {{t|sk|doslova}}
* Spanish: {{t+|es|literalmente}}, {{t+|es|literal}} {{q|informal, Latin America}}, {{t|es|textualmente}}
* Swedish: {{t+|sv|bokstavligen}}, {{t+|sv|bokstavligt talat}}
* Tatar: {{t|tt|сүзгә-сүз}}, {{t|tt|һич үзгәртмичә}}, {{t|tt|сүзен сүзгә}}
* Turkish: {{t+|tr|harfiyen}}, {{t+|tr|resmen}}
* Ukrainian: {{t+|uk|буква́льно}}, {{t|uk|літера́льно}}, {{t|uk|у прямо́му се́нсі}}
* Urdu: {{t|ur|لفظی معنی}}
{{trans-bottom}}

{{cln|en|contranyms|degree adverbs|hedges|modal adverbs|speech-act adverbs}}