# What does the word 'literally' mean in metaphors and similes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 20, 2006, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123 "2006-11-20T08:38:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/21 "2006-11-20T18:23:28Z")
This is exactly why I don’t like an exclusively descriptivist approach to grammar. The common usage of a term doesn’t always make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/22 "2006-11-20T18:26:19Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] But I don’t see folks making the same objection to “really” that they make to “literally.” [/QUOTE] I think there’s a difference. The word “really” says you aren’t exaggerating. “He really hit the roof” means he was very angry, not just annoyed, and it would be equally idiomatic to say, “He was really angry.” But who would say, “He was literally angry”? So the two words aren’t intechangeable, and “really” here does not say thatit isn’t a metaphor. On the other hand, “literally” is (or should be) opposed to “figuratively”. You wouldn’t say, “He figuratively hit the roof,” but you might respond to the question, “Did he literally hit the roof?” with, “Well, no, only figuratively: he didn’t jump quite that high.” ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/23 "2006-11-20T18:46:46Z")
This thread really peeks my interest. For all intensive purposes, Daniel’s post makes alot of sense. He could not of made a better point, and I could care less what Diogenes says. Saying something happened literally is just to intensify the affect of what you said, and you shouldn’t loose site of that. That’s a bonified fact. You can either come to turns with it, or not. Ignorance is blitz, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/24 "2006-11-20T18:50:20Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] I think there’s a difference. The word “really” says you aren’t exaggerating. “He really hit the roof” means he was very angry, not just annoyed, and it would be equally idiomatic to say, “He was really angry.” [/quote] Unless your boss was so angry that his feet left the ground and his head impacted with the ceiling, you are indeed exagerating when you say, “My boss really hit the roof.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/25 "2006-11-20T19:15:40Z")
I, too, hate it when we take a very unique word like “literally” and change its meaning so that we need to create another word to replace the lost meaning. I really want to punch people in the face when they misuse words like that. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/26 "2006-11-20T19:47:46Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] Unless your boss was so angry that his feet left the ground and his head impacted with the ceiling, you are indeed exagerating when you say, “My boss really hit the roof.” [/QUOTE] Exactly so. Note the root: real + ly. As in “It really happened that he hit the roof.” Why is this acceptable and using literally the same way isn’t? ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/27 "2006-11-20T20:14:23Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] Folks haven’t answered the question clearly. “Literally” has, as its literal meaning, almost exactly the same meaning as “really.” But very few folks object to expressions like, “He really tore into her.” If you’ve got a C++ program for a brain that can’t deal with flexibility in language usage, expressions like “he really tore into her” should bother you every bit as much as expressions like “We were literally packed in there like sardines.” There should be no difference between, “He literally hit the roof” and, “He really hit the roof.” But I don’t see folks making the same objection to “really” that they make to “literally.” Daniel [/QUOTE] But “really” is often used without an attendant simile or metaphor, e.g. “He really was happy”, in which case it isn’t much different than “very” or “truly”. By your argument, “He truly hit the roof” should also be verboten. On the other hand, I don’t commonly hear someone say “He was literally happy”; it is almost always used with a phrase that looks like a metaphor or simile. This usage belies the original meaning of “literally”, i.e. that the speaker is NOT using a simile when he says “They were literally packed in like sardines.” Again, this falls in the “could/couldn’t care less” bucket; language is democratic, and sometimes the majority just doesn’t behave logically. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/28 "2006-11-20T20:45:24Z")
The problem with “literally” being said of a metaphor is not that it is incorrect, but that it is lazy and ineffective. There is nothing wrong with pretending that a metaphor is meant literally; it’s a common form of humor and hyperbole. Extending the “hit the roof” example, if I made my boss extremely angry, I might tell someone “He hit the roof! Seriously, there’s a hole in our ceiling now; you should come look at it. I think his head is orbiting the moon. If you look through a telescope, you can read his lips–he’s still cursing me out! That’s how mad he got!” With “packed in like sardines,” I might say to someone, “Do I smell like fish to you? Because I felt like a sardine at that conference, the way they packed us in. I’m not joking! I kept looking at the ceiling in terror, waiting for someone to rip it off with a can opener and put me on a cracker.” Now obviously, not a word of either story is true, and the words “seriously” and “I’m not joking” serve only to draw attention to the joke through irony. “Literally” is meant to draw attention ironically to a metaphor in the same manner. Unfortunately, it fails because its laziness undermines the supposed irony. In fact, it seems to have become automatic for some people to the extent that neither the speaker nor the listener registers the irony at all, and hears it either as an error or a new meaning. But I maintain that if you asked people who use it that way what they meant, and they were, improbably, articulate enough to tell you, they would describe what I just explained. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/29 "2006-11-20T20:45:39Z")
[QUOTE=Walter Windchill] This thread really peeks my interest. For all intensive purposes, Daniel’s post makes alot of sense. He could not of made a better point, and I could care less what Diogenes says. Saying something happened literally is just to intensify the affect of what you said, and you shouldn’t loose site of that. That’s a bonified fact. You can either come to turns with it, or not. Ignorance is blitz, after all. [/QUOTE] Your right, Walter! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Anduril](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c0e974/32.png) [@Anduril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduril)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/30 "2006-11-20T20:57:55Z")
[QUOTE=Alan Smithee] The problem with “literally” being said of a metaphor is not that it is incorrect, but that it is lazy and ineffective. There is nothing wrong with pretending that a metaphor is meant literally; it’s a common form of humor and hyperbole. Extending the “hit the roof” example, if I made my boss extremely angry, I might tell someone “He hit the roof! Seriously, there’s a hole in our ceiling now; you should come look at it. I think his head is orbiting the moon. If you look through a telescope, you can read his lips–he’s still cursing me out! That’s how mad he got!” With “packed in like sardines,” I might say to someone, “Do I smell like fish to you? Because I felt like a sardine at that conference, the way they packed us in. I’m not joking! I kept looking at the ceiling in terror, waiting for someone to rip it off with a can opener and put me on a cracker.” Now obviously, not a word of either story is true, and the words “seriously” and “I’m not joking” serve only to draw attention to the joke through irony. “Literally” is meant to draw attention ironically to a metaphor in the same manner. Unfortunately, it fails because its laziness undermines the supposed irony. In fact, it seems to have become automatic for some people to the extent that neither the speaker nor the listener registers the irony at all, and hears it either as an error or a new meaning. But I maintain that if you asked people who use it that way what they meant, and they were, improbably, articulate enough to tell you, they would describe what I just explained. [/QUOTE] As one of the inarticulate, I’ll have to agree. Briefly, of course. ---
**Author:** ![bhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c2a13f/32.png) [@bhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bhal)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/31 "2006-11-20T21:09:15Z")
I understand the argument that “literally” might sometimes be used with this newer meaning intentionally. Obviously from the posts here there is disagreement as to how acceptable such usage may be. In these cases I would stipulate that it falls under the evolution of word meaning so it could be acceptable. But in my experience there is no such intention to change the meaning to in effect square the intensity of the metaphor. Speaking from my own experience, people are using “literally” because they’ve heard others do it, giving no thought to the meaning at all This is the use of a word regardless of its meaning, not because of its meaning. Therefore the usage is incorrect. Mostly, it’s no different from “He went like ‘ABC’, and so I went ‘DEF’.” Just because one blindly or lazily substites “went” for “said” doesn’t make it OK. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/32 "2006-11-20T21:22:09Z")
[QUOTE=bhal] But in my experience there is no such intention to change the meaning to in effect square the intensity of the metaphor. Speaking from my own experience, people are using “literally” because they’ve heard others do it, giving no thought to the meaning at all This is the use of a word regardless of its meaning, not because of its meaning. Therefore the usage is incorrect. Mostly, it’s no different from “He went like ‘ABC’, and so I went ‘DEF’.” Just because one blindly or lazily substites “went” for “said” doesn’t make it OK. [/QUOTE] Huh? What **would** make it okay, if not that the listener understood what the audience meant? Of COURSE it’s okay, and calling it blind or lazy is incoherent. How does saying “went” save the speaker from work, and how is the speaker’s eyesight (figurative or literal) involved in the speech? > [@Alan Smithee](#): > > Now obviously, not a word of either story is true, and the words “seriously” and “I’m not joking” serve only to draw attention to the joke through irony. “Literally” is meant to draw attention ironically to a metaphor in the same manner. That’s actually a classic straw man: you’re suggesting people mean something by a phrase, pointing out that they don’t mean it, and then accusing them of laziness for not meaning what you said that they meant. I’m not saying folks are being ironic when they use “literally” in this context; I’m saying that they’re using it as an intensifier. That’s different. > [@CJJ\*](#): > > But “really” is often used without an attendant simile or metaphor, e.g. “He really was happy”, in which case it isn’t much different than “very” or “truly”. By your argument, “He truly hit the roof” should also be verboten. No–by my argument, “He truly hit the roof” is acceptable, just as is “He literally hit the roof.” You’re correct that “literally” as an intensifier appears to apply only to metaphorical speech; that means it has a more specific meaning than “really,” not that it doesn’t work as an intensifier. Over time, “literally” may migrate in meaning to be more broadly useful. > [@John Mace](#): > > I, too, hate it when we take a very unique word like “literally” and change its meaning so that we need to create another word to replace the lost meaning. I really want to punch people in the face when they misuse words like that. I can’t tell if you’re serious, based on that use of “really” in the last sentence. Assuming for a moment that you are, I disagree that we need to create another word to replace the “lost meaning,” because no meaning has been lost. Can you tell me about three times in your entire life when someone used the word “literally” and you were genuinely confused about which meaning of the word they intended? I can’t tell you about a single such occasion in my life: every single time, **every single time** that I’ve heard the word “literally,” I’ve immediately and without difficulty been able to discern whether the speaker intended it to be understood as an intensifier on a metaphor or as a qualifier that their speech was not an exagerration. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/33 "2006-11-20T21:28:48Z")
[QUOTE=bhal] This is the use of a word regardless of its meaning, not because of its meaning. Therefore the usage is incorrect. Mostly, it’s no different from “He went like ‘ABC’, and so I went ‘DEF’.” Just because one blindly or lazily substites “went” for “said” doesn’t make it OK. [/QUOTE] _Eppur si muove._ You know, I was listening to Weird Al Yankovic’s _Party At the Leper Colony_ after reading this thread, and one line in the song is “She cried her eyes out, literally.” I can’t speak for anyone else who heard this song, but I feel quite confident I know what meaning was intended. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/34 "2006-11-20T21:49:35Z")
[QUOTE=BayleDomon] _Eppur si muove._ You know, I was listening to Weird Al Yankovic’s _Party At the Leper Colony_ after reading this thread, and one line in the song is “She cried her eyes out, literally.” I can’t speak for anyone else who heard this song, but I feel quite confident I know what meaning was intended. [/QUOTE] The intention was to make a joke. And probably to make fun of people who use ‘literally’ in that way ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/35 "2006-11-20T22:00:37Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking] The intention was to make a joke. And probably to make fun of people who use ‘literally’ in that way [/QUOTE] I do dislike deconstructing humor, so I won’t get into that too deeply. My point was primarily to support **LHoD** ’s assertion that despite claims to the contrary, there is rarely if ever any confusion over which meaning of a word was intended, because context frequently eliminates any potential ambiguity. Though to continue pontificating, there’s no ambiguity in the Yankovic lyric because the subtext is humor and the song is clearly going for the bad puns, but I must admit I would probably be confused if someone told me in earnest, “My friend at the leper colony literally cried her eyes out last night.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/36 "2006-11-20T22:07:37Z")
[QUOTE=Anduril] As one of the inarticulate, I’ll have to agree. [/QUOTE] Thanks, **Anduril**. It’s always good to have mumbled, poorly worded support. 😉 > [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > That’s actually a classic straw man: you’re suggesting people mean something by a phrase, pointing out that they don’t mean it, and then accusing them of laziness for not meaning what you said that they meant. > > I’m not saying folks are being ironic when they use “literally” in this context; I’m saying that they’re using it as an intensifier. That’s different. I agree that it is being used as an intensifier. And to a certain extent, that is becoming an independent usage in its own right, as people hear and repeat it without really understanding it. But I still maintain that the _reason_ it is used as an intensifier is the irony, just as “seriously” or “I’m not joking” functioned more or less as intensifiers in my examples thanks to irony. This is also the reason it is used as an intensifier exclusively of metaphors and similes, and no one says, “He was literally angry!” This is pretty clear evidence that at some point, the people who used it as an intensifier were aware of the traditional meaning of “literally” and were using it ironically. I maintain that many or most (perhaps nearly all) of the people who use it as an intensifier are still aware of the irony, or would be if they stopped to think about it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/37 "2006-11-20T22:32:44Z")
[QUOTE=Alan Smithee] I agree that it is being used as an intensifier. And to a certain extent, that is becoming an independent usage in its own right, as people hear and repeat it without really understanding it. But I still maintain that the _reason_ it is used as an intensifier is the irony, just as “seriously” or “I’m not joking” functioned more or less as intensifiers in my examples thanks to irony. This is also the reason it is used as an intensifier exclusively of metaphors and similes, and no one says, “He was literally angry!” This is pretty clear evidence that at some point, the people who used it as an intensifier were aware of the traditional meaning of “literally” and were using it ironically. I maintain that many or most (perhaps nearly all) of the people who use it as an intensifier are still aware of the irony, or would be if they stopped to think about it. [/QUOTE] I think this is a perfectly good and rational explanation of why it’s used the way it is. I also think that for the most part it’s retained its irony, even if only subconsciously. If people truly didn’t understand why they use it, you’d probably hear it being overapplied as a standard intensifier and used in sentences like “He’s literally mad!” I’d be surprised if an average English speaker thought that was perfectly acceptable, though. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/38 "2006-11-20T22:40:42Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] Can you tell me about three times in your entire life when someone used the word “literally” and you were genuinely confused about which meaning of the word they intended? I can’t tell you about a single such occasion in my life: every single time, **every single time** that I’ve heard the word “literally,” I’ve immediately and without difficulty been able to discern whether the speaker intended it to be understood as an intensifier on a metaphor or as a qualifier that their speech was not an exagerration. [/QUOTE] “The wiring in the network closet was literally a rat’s nest.” - Do rats live there or is the wiring just really twisted and jumbled? “Bob’s wife is so mad at him, he’s literally in the doghouse.” Is Bob physically avoiding his wife, or is she just really mad at him? “When she said she didn’t love me, she literally broke my heart.” Are you telling me this from a hospital bed, or just really really depressed? Yes, I agree that when using “literally” with a commonplace simile that couldn’t possibly be true–e.g. it is extremely unlikely anyone anywhere ever had “butterfilies in their stomach”–the usage is obviously ironic. But in the cases above, I think there’s a genuine chance for confusion. Still, I’ll file this under yet another idiotic quirk of democratizing language. But it won’t stop me passing judgement on people who continue to use “literally” in cases that can’t possibly be literal; at the very least, it shows they haven’t thought much about it IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/39 "2006-11-20T22:46:36Z")
[QUOTE=Alan Smithee] I still maintain that the _reason_ it is used as an intensifier is the irony, just as “seriously” or “I’m not joking” functioned more or less as intensifiers in my examples thanks to irony. This is also the reason it is used as an intensifier exclusively of metaphors and similes, and no one says, “He was literally angry!” This is pretty clear evidence that at some point, the people who used it as an intensifier were aware of the traditional meaning of “literally” and were using it ironically. [/QUOTE] I disagree: far from being evidence, that’s just supposition. Do you have any evidence for this? > [@CJJ\*](#): > > “The wiring in the network closet was literally a rat’s nest.” - Do rats live there or is the wiring just really twisted and jumbled? > > “Bob’s wife is so mad at him, he’s literally in the doghouse.” Is Bob physically avoiding his wife, or is she just really mad at him? > > “When she said she didn’t love me, she literally broke my heart.” Are you telling me this from a hospital bed, or just really really depressed? Okay, first off, I was asking for actual examples of confusion, not examples that you constructed to maximize confusion. Second, I would not interpret any of those three as nonmetaphorical, and I would be very surprised if the speaker intended for them to be. Were they nonmetaphorical, they would not be phrased as cliches: “Dude, some rats built a nest in the network closet–it was nasty!” “Bob is a total freak: he’s moved out into the doghouse since he got in a fight with his wife.” “Yeah, uh, this is pretty weird, but I’m here in the hospital because right after she told me she didn’t love me, my heart started hurting like hell, and it turned out I was having a heart attack.” That’s how speakers would be likely to phrase these statements were they meant nonmetaphorically. So let me repeat: can you give me any actual examples of times you’ve genuinely been confused? > [@](#): > > Still, I’ll file this under yet another idiotic quirk of democratizing language. Ya can’t democratize anarchy, man. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123/40 "2006-11-20T23:13:14Z")
[QUOTE=CJJ\*] “The wiring in the network closet was literally a rat’s nest.” - Do rats live there or is the wiring just really twisted and jumbled? “Bob’s wife is so mad at him, he’s literally in the doghouse.” Is Bob physically avoiding his wife, or is she just really mad at him? “When she said she didn’t love me, she literally broke my heart.” Are you telling me this from a hospital bed, or just really really depressed? [/quote] Apart from what **LHoD** said, even should these constructions be used, sentences aren’t left in a vacuum. There will be context. Even in the worst case scenario, if you should go to your boss and say the first sentence with nothing preceding it, and he’s confused, it doesn’t take a whole lot to clear up the confusion. Further, those sentences as constructed are not exactly made worse by ‘literally’. For example, “The wiring in the network closet was a rat’s nest.” This is just as ‘confusing’ as with literally, and perhaps even more so, as you’re not adding any words that might indicate exaggeration. Literally isn’t turning a metaphor into reality in this case. > [@](#): > > Still, I’ll file this under yet another idiotic quirk of democratizing language. You’ll have to remind me when language was democratized. I must have missed that in History class. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-word-literally-mean-in-metaphors-and-similes/381123.md?page=3)