Literally vs Actually - What's the difference?
literally | actually |
(speech act) word for word; not figuratively; not as an idiom or metaphor
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=May 24
, author=Nathan Rabin
, title=Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3
, work=The Onion AV Club
(degree, proscribed) used non-literally as an intensifier for figurative statements : virtually (often considered incorrect; see usage notes)
* 1827 , Sir Walter Scott, Chronicles of the Canongate
* 1993 , , Real Magic , page 193:
* 2009 , :
(colloquial) Used as a generic downtoner : just, merely.
(modal) In act or in fact; really; in truth; positively.
(obsolete) actively
remarked upon the irony that this qualifier of veracity often introduces an utter lie;, page 3 and,
* noted that in many cases, (term) functions as little more than a vacuous emphatic utterance.ibidem , page 4
* In practice, actually and its synonyms are often used to insinuate that the following is either unusual or contrary to a norm or preceding assumption, or to merely preface an overconfident opinion contrasting a previous statement or norm (as per 'vacuous emphasis' note above).
: This is actually a really beautiful song. (contrasting opinion)
: Actually , I'm not from France - I'm from Switzerland. (contrary from assumption)
: At the check-out, the cashier actually greeted me for once. (contrary from norm)
Actually is a synonym of literally.
As adverbs the difference between literally and actually
is that literally is word for word; not figuratively; not as an idiom or metaphor while actually is in act or in fact; really; in truth; positively.literally
English
Alternative forms
* litterally (obsolete)Adverb
(-)- 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.
citation, page= , passage=Sequels to fish-out-of-water comedies make progressively less sense the longer a series continues. By the time Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles rolled around in 2001, 15 years after the first Crocodile Dundee became a surprise blockbuster, the title character had been given an awfully long time to grow acclimated to those kooky Americans. Men In Black 3 finagles its way out of this predicament by literally resetting the clock with a time-travel premise that makes Will Smith both a contemporary intergalactic cop in the late 1960s and a stranger to Josh Brolin, who plays the younger version of Smith’s stone-faced future partner, Tommy Lee Jones.}}
- The house was literally electrified; and it was only from witnessing the effects of her genius that he could guess to what a pitch theatrical excellence could be carried.
- You literally become the ball in a tennis match, you become the report that you are working on
- - She took a giant shit on my face. Literally.
- - Literally?
- - Well, no, not literally . That's disgusting. What's wrong with you?
- You literally put it in the microwave for five minutes and it's done.
Usage notes
"Literally" is the opposite of "figuratively", so many authorities object to the use of literally'' as an intensifier for figurative statements. For example "you literally become the ball", by the primary sense, would mean actually transforming into a spherical object, but the speaker is using ''literally as an intensifier. However, this type of usage is common in informal speech ("she was literally in floods of tears") and has a history of use in written English going back to at least 1827.Quotations
* (English Citations of "literally")Synonyms
* (not metaphorically) actually, really * (as an intensifier) virtuallyAntonyms
* (not metaphorically) figuratively, metaphorically, virtuallyactually
English
Adverb
(-)- Actually , I had nothing to do with that incident.
- Neither actually nor passively. — Fuller.