1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. exactly

Find the word definition

What is "exactly"

Crossword clues for exactly

exactly
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
exactly
adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
correspond closely/exactly/precisely to sth
▪ The description of these events corresponds closely to other accounts written at the time.
exactly equal
▪ The food is shared out in exactly equal portions among all members of the community.
exactly right
▪ My figures may not be exactly right.
exactly the same
▪ Your measurements are exactly the same as Dana’s.
exactly/precisely the opposite (=completely different than what has been said)
▪ It looks simple, but it is exactly the opposite.
just/exactly the same sth
▪ That’s funny – Simon said exactly the same thing.
know exactly/precisely
▪ I know exactly how you feel.
match exactly/closely/perfectly
▪ The copy closely matches the original.
My sentiments exactly (=I agree)
▪ ‘After all, it’s her decision.’ ‘My sentiments exactly.’
not exactly sure
▪ I’m not exactly sure when the funeral is.
precisely/exactly the kind
▪ This was precisely the kind of help that she needed.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
right
▪ You might well find something that is exactly right for you that you didn't even know about earlier.
▪ On that point, he got it exactly right.
▪ Wedges are used under the former to get the vertical position exactly right.
▪ It helps kids to focus less on whether they are exactly right and more on thinking like a mathematician.
▪ Theatre administrator Patricia McBride is calling on expert help to get the boy's drawl exactly right.
▪ Setting unrealistic standards means we can only fail, nothing we do is ever enough or exactly right.
▪ They tend to be sensitive to every change in the atmosphere; they can not get the temperature exactly right.
■ VERB
correspond
▪ Practical Transformers Another problem is that the output voltage of transformers seldom correspond exactly to the rated voltage.
▪ First, no country has a political economy that corresponds exactly to either the market economy or the command economy.
▪ Instead, it was in areas on the right-hand side exactly corresponding to the language centres in the opposite hemisphere.
▪ An ideal type is illustrative, but it does not necessarily correspond exactly to any real-world example.
▪ I remember that he wrote that Michelangelo's drawing technique corresponded exactly to his Neoplatonism.
▪ Once again we are saying something in general form which corresponds exactly to the particularities of wave mechanics.
▪ Not that they corresponded exactly, but they were close enough.
▪ Apart from the addition of variables derived from the two new questions, the other tables do not exactly correspond.
do
▪ If you were abandoned on a desert island, you would have total personal sovereignty to do exactly what you want.
▪ Surely now he could do exactly as he liked.
▪ Many local jails do exactly that.
▪ Q.. What exactly does the term bankruptcy mean?
▪ He did exactly the same thing to Delino DeShields in the seventh.
▪ Now, Barak has pledged to do exactly that no later than July 7.
▪ Innovative programs that make use of mentors often do exactly this.
know
▪ Nobody knows exactly who built South Luffenham, but it is almost certain that an architect called John Sturges supplied the drawings.
▪ The voters knew exactly what they were voting for.
▪ So I knew exactly why I wanted to conduct it.
▪ I know exactly what the poor little darling is suffering.
▪ The little wife knew exactly what she was doing.
▪ But I know exactly where these ground-floor folks are coming from.
▪ Oh, if only she knew exactly what she did want!
▪ I wish I knew exactly what the territory ahead will look like, but I do not.
look
▪ They say he looked exactly like the family picture of old Sir Hugo, who first saw the Hound.
▪ Four of the five containers look exactly the same.
▪ While he ... All he needed, he sometimes thought, was a trunk to make him look exactly like an elephant.
▪ It looks exactly like a Georgetown party.
▪ He looked exactly the way he'd looked last time I'd seen him.
▪ He thought she looked exactly as Violet might look when sitting at the edge of a fish pond.
▪ Chick looked exactly like the kind of person who starred in public information films about not taking sweets from strangers.
▪ But the figure waiting at the customs barrier looked exactly the same.
match
▪ There was no doubt at all that her mother's clip exactly matched the right-hand side of the clasp on the doge's cloak.
▪ At this extreme duration the researchers noticed that the respirations of man and algae were not exactly matched.
▪ This almost exactly matches up with the periodic variation present in the Mercury-transit data.
▪ He was dressed in a scrupulously clean but threadbare dhoti and he wore a pale blue turban which exactly matched his eyes.
▪ This light is tuned so that the photon energy exactly matches the desired atomic transition energy.
▪ Tailor your list of achievements to match exactly the requirements of your future position, and leave everything else off.
▪ The structure will therefore match exactly what is achieved by the use of ordinary predicative position.
▪ When the losses incurred on the call are exactly matched by the profits received from the shares.
remember
▪ She tried hard to think back and remember exactly what she'd said that first night in Jarman House.
▪ Untying him, Ezra was sure he should remember exactly why, why the spectacle before him.
▪ I can remember exactly what it was like.
▪ But we who are pro-choice have to remember exactly what it is we are fighting for.
▪ Nobody remembers exactly where the restaurant is, but eventually we turn off past the sign for Belle Isle.
▪ Yet neither one of them could remember exactly what had been said; the words had dissipated, leaving only charged air.
▪ An instant later she remembered exactly where she was.
▪ Many people today, worldwide, remember exactly what they were doing when John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
I know (just/exactly) how you feel
▪ I have a sudden urge to touch her, to hold her, to tell her I know how she feels.
▪ I knew how he felt about me -- a short blind boy who hated leather basketballs.
▪ I know how he feels about me!
▪ I know how you feel about it ... You would rather wait - wait till we're married.
▪ I know how you feel, Doyle thought.
▪ I know how you feel, they're all or nothing.
▪ You ran a decent campaign, John, and I know how it feels to lose.
be just/exactly so
▪ Everything has to be just so at Maxine's dinner parties.
▪ But this turned out to be just so much more Super Bowl hype.
▪ Flashman is just so bitter - he's blaming us, but we just wanted our money above aboard.
▪ I was just so furious that I swept out in high dudgeon.
▪ I was just so pumped up to do good.
▪ I went downstairs, I was just so struck by musicians and live music.
▪ If it was a microcap fund it would be different because there are just so many microcap stocks you can buy.
▪ Now, nations are just so many men like these.
▪ There were just so many animals around.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Assemble the table exactly as shown in the diagram on the left.
▪ Glue the pieces together, exactly as shown in the diagram.
▪ I'm sure he knew exactly what he was doing.
▪ I don't exactly know how to dry herbs, could you show me?
▪ It's exactly 5 o'clock.
▪ It tastes exactly the same as meat.
▪ It took us exactly two hours to get here.
▪ That's exactly right.
▪ That's exactly the sort of material I'm looking for.
▪ That's exactly what happened to me!
▪ The baby was born almost exactly a year after they were married.
▪ The bill came to exactly $1000.
▪ The doctors can't say exactly what's wrong with my mother.
▪ The earrings are beautiful! They're exactly what I wanted.
▪ The police want to know exactly when you left the building.
▪ This is exactly the kind of job that computers are good at.
▪ What exactly did you want to see?
▪ Where exactly are you from?
▪ You must do exactly as I say.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But the truth is that the speech did exactly what Dole and his advisers wanted it to do.
▪ He couldn't, though, for exactly the same reasons that he had left her in the first place.
▪ Some members stay in Washington, but I knew exactly where I was going.
▪ The kittens know instinctively what to do, they just have to learn exactly how to do it skilfully.
▪ These latter were nearly all middle-aged or C3 with bad eyesight, so the outlook was not exactly exhilarating.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Exactly

Exactly \Ex*act"ly\, adv. In an exact manner; precisely according to a rule, standard, or fact; accurately; strictly; correctly; nicely. ``Exactly wrought.''
--Shak.

His enemies were pleased, for he had acted exactly as their interests required.
--Bancroft.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
exactly

1530s, from exact (adj.) + -ly (2). Elliptical use for "quite right" not recorded before 1869.

Wiktionary
exactly

adv. 1 (context manner English) without approximation; precisely. 2 (context focus English) Used to provide emphasis. interj. (non-gloss definition: Signifies agreement or recognition)

Related phrases:
WordNet
exactly

  1. adv. indicating exactness or preciseness; "he was doing precisely (or exactly) what she had told him to do"; "it was just as he said--the jewel was gone"; "it has just enough salt" [syn: precisely, just]

  2. just as it should be; "`Precisely, my lord,' he said" [syn: precisely, on the nose, on the dot, on the button]

  3. in a precise manner; "she always expressed herself precisely" [syn: precisely, incisively] [ant: imprecisely, imprecisely]

Usage examples of "exactly".

Not knowing exactly what excuse to make, but hoping for something to turn up, the mullah took a lantern and followed him out, taking the lead as they passed through the gap in the fence and drew abreast of the mosque portico.

Their theory is confirmed by the cases in which two mixed substances occupy a greater space than either singly, especially a space equal to the conjoined extent of each: for, as they point out, in an absolute interpenetration the infusion of the one into the other would leave the occupied space exactly what it was before and, where the space occupied is not increased by the juxtaposition, they explain that some expulsion of air has made room for the incoming substance.

Miss A had almost certainly told Graham Letts that she had been abused by her father and her brother at the age of twelve, and she may well have told Rosemary West exactly the same thing during their conversations in Cromwell Street.

Not one of them was deceived in the young officer, but, being already acquainted with the adventure, they were all delighted to dine with the hero of the comedy, and treated the handsome officer exactly as if he had truly been a man, but I am bound to confess that the male guests offered the Frenchwoman homages more worthy of her sex.

Seven or eight days afterwards, Paterno told me that the actress had related the affair to him exactly in the same words which I had used, and she had added that, if I had ceased my visits, it was only because I was afraid of her taking me at my word in case I should renew my proposal.

I felt exactly the same as an hour earlier back when the Zookeeper was spilling me the canned adios lecture about accepting responsibility.

The absolute silence of this seldom used dungeon was broken by a creaking sound, exactly the sound, he realised, of the handle to the door below that gave admittance upon the prisoners.

The Knight and Sancho, as the great work closes, know exactly who they are, not so much by their adventures as through their marvelous conversations, be they quarrels or exchanges of insights.

What, exactly, was he accomplishing by continuing this aimless chase, when he could not even hope to gain honest satisfaction by eventually flailing away at the body of an innocent man?

Holding the palm of his throbbing hand to the light again, Alec saw that his burn and this mark were exactly the same size and shape.

A little alnico magnet, stuck in exactly the right place with a wad of chewing gum, can erase a hundred thousand units of information before they find it.

They had only a little round opening on the top, closed with an aluminium lid, which fitted exactly like the lid of a milk-can.

No one would guess how important it would be to know exactly where Amado Ortega had been until the second week in July.

It was a ceramic disc, an ancient coin exactly like the coin the anchorite had given him.

Although the anesthetic worked, Liston operated with his customary speed, single-handedly amputating the leg at the thigh in exactly twenty-eight seconds.