as in accurately
in a literal, true, or accurate way
She is not one for hyperbole—all of her warnings should be taken literally. The employees took the CEO's remarks literally and rightfully worried about the future health of the company.
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Recent Examples of literally
Sarah is literally framed as someone who sees more than the average onlooker.
—
Ben Travers, IndieWire, 29 Oct. 2025
But new Silicon Valley companies such as Orchid are taking it one step further, quite literally scraping off genetic material from embryos to allow for a full gamut of embryo comparisons, including disease probabilities but also things like BMI, depression risk, hair color and more.
—Abby McCloskey, Twin Cities, 29 Oct. 2025
And rather than being designed in a Top Secret military facility—literally, Area 51, used for the U-2—at the expense of billions of taxpayer dollars, Planet’s doing it with around six hundred employees and hardly a security clearance in sight.
—Literary Hub, 28 Oct. 2025
Lewis literally brought in a mountain climber to talk to the Aztecs before last week’s game against Fresno State.
—Kirk Kenney, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for literally
Ben Travers, IndieWire, 29 Oct. 2025
But new Silicon Valley companies such as Orchid are taking it one step further, quite literally scraping off genetic material from embryos to allow for a full gamut of embryo comparisons, including disease probabilities but also things like BMI, depression risk, hair color and more.
—Abby McCloskey, Twin Cities, 29 Oct. 2025
And rather than being designed in a Top Secret military facility—literally, Area 51, used for the U-2—at the expense of billions of taxpayer dollars, Planet’s doing it with around six hundred employees and hardly a security clearance in sight.
—Literary Hub, 28 Oct. 2025
Lewis literally brought in a mountain climber to talk to the Aztecs before last week’s game against Fresno State.
—Kirk Kenney, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for literally
Recent Examples of Synonyms for literally
Adverb
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Grokipedia accurately states that as of October 2025, Wikipedia had more than 7 million articles in English, in the main entry about its older rival.—
NPR,
NPR,
29 Oct. 2025
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But Taneka Bowles and Kiya Tomlin didn’t get the memo about staying in the background (and both are literally going beyond the bleachers, as Bowles Instagram name accurately describes).—
Kimberly Wilson,
Essence,
29 Oct. 2025
Adverb
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Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
1 Nov. 2025
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There is a laundry list of policy changes that directly affect the technology industry.—
Andrew Nusca,
Fortune,
31 Oct. 2025
Video
Literally
A word that (literally) drives people nuts
Cite this Entry
“Literally.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/literally. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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