literally

Etymology
From ; equivalent to.

Adverb

 * 1) Word for word; not figuratively; not as an idiom or metaphor.
 * 2)   virtually, so to speak (often considered incorrect; see usage notes)
 * 3)   just, merely.
 * 1)   virtually, so to speak (often considered incorrect; see usage notes)
 * 2)   just, merely.
 * 1)   virtually, so to speak (often considered incorrect; see usage notes)
 * 2)   just, merely.
 * 1)   virtually, so to speak (often considered incorrect; see usage notes)
 * 2)   just, merely.
 * 1)   virtually, so to speak (often considered incorrect; see usage notes)
 * 2)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.
 * 1)   just, merely.

Usage notes

 * is the opposite of and many authorities object to the use of  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  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 was literally in floods of tears”).

Translations

 * Afrikaans:
 * Arabic: حَرْفِيًّا, بِٱلْحَرْف
 * Hijazi Arabic: حَرْفِيَّا
 * Catalan:
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * Czech:
 * Danish: bogstavelig talt
 * Dutch:
 * Esperanto: laŭlitere, laŭvorte
 * Faroese: bókstavliga
 * Finnish:, sananmukaisesti
 * French:, , ,
 * Galician: literalmente
 * Georgian:, პირდაპირი მნიშვნელობით, პირდაპირი გაგებით
 * German: ,
 * Greek: ,
 * Hebrew: פְּשׁוּטוֹ כְּמַשְׁמָעוֹ, בְּאֹפֶן מִלּוּלִי
 * Hungarian:, , szóról szóra
 * Icelandic:
 * Italian:
 * Japanese:, 額面通り
 * Latin: ad verbum
 * Macedonian: буквално
 * Malayalam: അക്ഷരാർത്ഥത്തിൽ
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: bokstavelig
 * Nynorsk: bokstaveleg
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian:
 * Russian: ,
 * Serbo-Croatian:, , doslovce, tačno tako
 * Slovak: doslova
 * Spanish:, , textualmente
 * Swedish: ,
 * Tatar: сүзгә-сүз, һич үзгәртмичә, сүзен сүзгә
 * Turkish: ,
 * Ukrainian:, літера́льно, у прямо́му се́нсі
 * Urdu: لفظی معنی