| 1. | in exactly the same words; verbatim. |
| 2. | one word at a time, without regard for the sense of the whole: She translated the book word for word. |
| word for word adv. In exactly the same words; verbatim. word'-for-word' (wûrd'fər-wûrd') adj. |
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.