verbatim

²ver·ba·tim

adj \(ˌ)vər-ˈbā-təm\

Definition of VERBATIM

: being in or following the exact words : word-for-word <a verbatim report of the meeting>

Examples of VERBATIM

1. Was Coleridge's “Table Talk,” as recorded by his circle, his words or theirs—or a conflation of both? And what about Boswell, the most celebrated auditor of them all, who composed a masterpiece of English literature out of the supposedly verbatim speech of Samuel Johnson? Did Johnson begin his every declaration with an orotund “Sir?” —James Atlas, New York Times Magazine, 23 June 1991
2. Some readers may unfortunately be made mistrustful of the authors' findings by their attempts to enliven the book with unverifiable—if inconsequential—details about the settings of events and by occasionally presenting unrecorded conversations of four decades ago in the form of verbatim quotations. —Henry Ashby Turner, New York Times Book Review, 22 June 1986

Origin of VERBATIM

(see ¹verbatim)

First Known Use: 1613

Rhymes with VERBATIM

sense-datum