6 Words That Can Ruin Your Sentence - 2

literally


Literally
[lit-er-uh-lee]
This adverb should be used to describe an action that occurs in a strict sense. Often, however, it is used inversely to emphasize a hyperbolic or figurative statement: "I literally ran 300 miles today." Literally is one of the most famously used crutch words in English. The next one, however, may surprise you.
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literally
ˈlɪt(ə)rəli/
adverb
adverb: literally
  1. in a literal manner or sense; exactly.
    "the driver took it literally when asked to go straight over the roundabout"
    synonyms:verbatim, word for word, line for line, letter for letter, to the letter; 
    exactly,precisely, faithfully, closely, strictly, strictly speaking, accurately,rigorously; 
    rareliteratim
    "their name, translated literally, means ‘the river’"
    antonyms:loosely, imprecisely, metaphorically
    • informal
      used for emphasis while not being literally true.
      "I have received literally thousands of letters"