Definitions
1.AdverbIn a literal manner; exactly as stated, word for word.
Without overstatement or understatement, or false or misleading words."He's prone to exaggeration, so don't take what he says literally.; There are literally millions of individual pieces of space debris orbiting Earth.; 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.; I didn't have time to repair the wall, so I literally just papered over the cracks.; My daughter's pet rabbit had babies, and now we've literally got rabbits coming out of our ears."
2.AdverbWithout overstatement or understatement, or false or misleading words."He's prone to exaggeration, so don't take what he says literally.; There are literally millions of individual pieces of space debris orbiting Earth."
3.AdverbWith 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.; I didn't have time to repair the wall, so I literally just papered over the cracks."
4.AdverbDraws 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."
5.AdverbAs an intensifier.
Used as a general intensifier or dramatiser, sometimes tending towards a meaningless filler."I had no idea, so I was literally guessing.; I was literally having breakfast when she arrived.; She was literally like, "What?", and I was literally like, "Yeah".; Literally who is this?; He was so surprised, he literally jumped twenty feet in the air.; On 9/11 people were literally glued to their TV sets.; People can't even express their opinions freely in this country any more. Literally 1984!"
6.AdverbUsed as a general intensifier or dramatiser, sometimes tending towards a meaningless filler."I had no idea, so I was literally guessing.; I was literally having breakfast when she arrived.; She was literally like, "What?", and I was literally like, "Yeah".; Literally who is this?"
7.AdverbUsed 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.; On 9/11 people were literally glued to their TV sets.; People can't even express their opinions freely in this country any more. Literally 1984!"
8.AdverbUsed 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.; It won't take me long to get back, 'cause the store's literally two blocks away."