LITERALLY in a Sentence

Learn LITERALLY from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

56 example sentences for LITERALLY, such as:

1. Greenfly can literally suck a plant dry.
2. The event literally stopped the traffic.
3. Though nearly twenty he was barely literate.
4. I don't mean, literally, to take the next train.
5. She refused food and literally starved herself to death.

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 Meanings and Examples of LITERALLY
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
literally
 ad.  with meaning; word for word; letter by letter
Classic Sentence: (41 in 3 pages)
1  Gray wool for uniforms was now almost literally more priceless than rubies, and Ashley was wearing the familiar homespun.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XV
2  I don't mean, literally, to take the next train.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: Chapter 7
3  It was the idea also, that this same spermaceti was that quickening humor of the Greenland Whale which the first syllable of the word literally expresses.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 32. Cetology.
4  I couldn't help thinking that the years when Lena literally hadn't enough clothes to cover herself might have something to do with her untiring interest in dressing the human figure.
My Antonia By Willa Cather
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3. Lena Lingard: IV
5  I know for a fact, that his race horses literally ran away with the prettiest bit of Kentucky farming land I ever laid eyes upon.
The Awakening By Kate Chopin
Context  Highlight   In XXII
6  All day long the gates of the packing houses were besieged by starving and penniless men; they came, literally, by the thousands every single morning, fighting with each other for a chance for life.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 7
7  The winter went, and the spring came, and found them still living thus from hand to mouth, hanging on day by day, with literally not a month's wages between them and starvation.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 10
8  It was of no use for them to try to deceive him; he knew as much about the situation as they did, and he knew that the family might literally starve to death.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 11
9  There were hardened criminals and innocent men too poor to give bail; old men, and boys literally not yet in their teens.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 17
10  There were literally hundreds of such towns; there would be reports from half a dozen of them in a single batch of telegrams.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 31
11  When he spoke, a slave must stand, listen, and tremble; and such was literally the case.
The Narrative of the Life By Frederick Douglass
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER III
12  The head, neck, and shoulders of Mary were literally cut to pieces.
The Narrative of the Life By Frederick Douglass
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER VI
13  This woman's back, for weeks, was kept literally raw, made so by the lash of this merciless, religious wretch.
The Narrative of the Life By Frederick Douglass
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER X
14  It was literally prayer offered with strong crying and tears.
Uncle Tom's Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXVIII
15  And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer By Mark Twain
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER II
Example Sentence:
1  It is context and convention that determine whether a term will be interpreted literally or metaphorically.
2  The event literally stopped the traffic.
3  She refused food and literally starved herself to death.
4  Greenfly can literally suck a plant dry.
5  If you tell a person to "step on it" or "throw on your coat," they may take you literally, with disastrous consequences.
6  The word literally translates to 'dispeller of darkness,' or 'one who brings light.'
7  The colonel in charge of the rubbish clearing operation, Keith Schollom, told me this was literally a mountain of a problem to be dealing with.
8  There are literally hundreds of varieties of these two species of legume, including beans and peas with many different sizes, colors, shapes.
9  The literal meaning of the word " cat " is an animal.
10  His story is incredible in the literal sense of the word.
11  I beg your pardon, it is the literal truth: he asked me more than once, and was as stiff about urging his point as ever you could be.
12  Over one-quarter of the adult population are not fully literate.
13  They are the first fully literate generation in the country.
14  Though nearly twenty he was barely literate.
15  This claim is made on the grounds that literate people can be trained less expensively.