how to pronounce literally

/ˈlɪtɚəliː/

audio example by a male speaker

audio example by a female speaker

the above transcription of literally is a detailed (narrow) transcription according to the rules of the International Phonetic Association; you can find a description of each symbol by clicking the phoneme buttons in the secction below.

literally is pronounced in four syllables

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1.

2.

3.

4.

iː

example pitch curve for pronunciation of literally

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video examples of literally pronunciation

An example use of literally in a speech by a native speaker of american english:

“… one floor come down literally on the …”

meanings of literally

adverb:

Used to intensify or dramatise non-figurative statements; tending towards a meaningless filler word in repeated use.
Used as a generic downtoner: just, merely.
Used non-literally as an intensifier for figurative statements: virtually, so to speak (often considered incorrect; see usage notes).
Word for word; not figuratively; not as an idiom or metaphor.

literally frequency in english - B1 level of CEFR

the word literally occurs in english on average 67.2 times per one million words; this frequency warrants it to be in the study list for B1 level of language mastery according to CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference.

topics literally can be related to

it is hard to perfectly classify words into specific topics since each word can have many context of its use, but our machine-learning models believe that literally can be often used in the following areas:

1) communication, information, and media;

2) people, society, and culture;