1 used to emphasize that sth is correct in every way or in every detail
SYNPRECISELY:
I know exactly how she felt. * Do exactly as I tell you. * It happened almost exactly a year ago. * It's exactly nine o'clock. * You haven't changed at all-you still look exactly the same. * His words had exactly the opposite effect. * Your answer is exactly right. * It was a warm day, if not exactly hot.
2 (spoken) used to ask for more information about sth:
Where exactly did you stay in France? * (disapproving) Exactly what are you trying to tell me?
3 used as a reply, agreeing with what sb has just said, or emphasizing that it is correct:
'You mean somebody in this room must be the murderer?' 'Exactly.'
IDIOMS
not exactly (spoken)
1 used when you are saying the opposite of what you really mean:
He wasn't exactly pleased to see us-in fact he refused to open the door. * It's not exactly beautiful, is it? (= it's ugly)
2 used when you are correcting sth that sb has said:
'So he told you you'd got the job?' 'Not exactly, but he said they were impressed with me.'
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for exactly is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is exactly a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, exactly is tagged as adverb.
Does exactly appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — exactly appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
