word for word

Ads

noun

in exactly the same words; verbatim.

one word at a time, without regard for the sense of the whole: She translated the book word for word.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English

Related forms

word-for-word, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

word for word

Exactly as written or spoken, as in That was the forecast, word for word. Chaucer used this idiom in the late 1300s.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source

Relevant Questions

00:10

Word for word is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

Example sentences

Memorize it, although perhaps not word for word, and time yourself.

All translations need to be original, word for word translations.

Yet observe, line for line and almost word for word, how strangely they differ from prose.

In between was two pages taken word for word from a book of bios.

Matching Quote