Word.ws English Dictionary

litterally

litterally is the obsolete form of literally.

Meaning of literally

Adverb

literally (comparative more literally, superlative most literally, abbreviation lit.)

  1. Without overstatement or understatement, or false or misleading words.
    • He's prone to exaggeration, so don't take what he says literally.
    Synonyms:
    ad verbum
  2. With phrasings that might normally be used or understood as figurative: truly; not figuratively; not as an idiom or metaphor.
    • 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.
  3. Draws attention to a pun or other wordplay involving an idiom.
    • My daughter's pet rabbit had babies, and now we've literally got rabbits coming out of our ears.
    Synonyms:
    ad verbum
  4. (colloquial) Used as a general intensifier or dramatiser, sometimes tending towards a meaningless filler.
    • I had no idea, so I was literally guessing.
  5. (proscribed, sometimes) Used as an intensifier with statements or terms that are in fact meant figuratively and not word for word as stated.
    • He was so surprised, he literally jumped twenty feet in the air.
  6. (colloquial) Used as a generic downtoner: just, merely.
    • It's not even hard⁠ to make—you literally just put it in the microwave for five minutes and it's done.
    Synonyms:
    merely, barely, but, just, no more than, nothing but, only, simply

Forms of litterally

comparativemore litterally
superlativemost litterally

Questions about litterally

What is litterally the obsolete form of?
Litterally is the obsolete form of literally.

Words near litterally in the dictionary

  1. litter tray
  2. litter trays
  3. litter-bug
  4. litter-bugs
  5. Litteral
  6. litterally
  7. Litterals
  8. litteraly
  9. litterate
  10. litterateur
  11. litterateurs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: litterally (page history and authors); literally (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “litterally.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/litterally. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.