totally

[ toht-l-ee ]

adverb

1. wholly; entirely; completely:

   The two sisters have totally different personalities.

2. Informal. (used as an intensifier):

   I totally cried when the movie ended. That was totally not what I meant.

interjection

1. Informal. definitely; absolutely (used to express complete agreement or strong affirmation):

   Yes, totally, he should apologize to you!

Word History and Origins

Origin of totally¹

First recorded in 1500–10; total + -ly

Example Sentences

These ancient relatives of mammals were “totally bizarre animals,” says paleontologist Megan Whitney at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.

From Science News

We had a grandmother who was living in a home that was totally intergenerational.

From Essence.com

If you’ve been working out a while and not deodorizing, it might take a few passes to totally get rid of the stink.

From Popular-Science

Unless, that is, you want to maximize discomfort, in which case that would be a totally different kind of party.

From Ozy

“The headline that neck gaiters can be worse is totally inaccurate,” says Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.

From Science News

Its graceful hotels and beautiful restaurants are totally dependent on the tourist trade.

From The Daily Beast

It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time.

From The Daily Beast

If life gets in the way, Desert Golfing totally understands.

From The Daily Beast

And some dresses can be totally altered from an app on your phone.

From The Daily Beast

And this song is just absolute genius and totally universal.

From The Daily Beast

We stood staring after the fugitives in perfect bewilderment, totally unable to explain their apparently causeless panic.

From Project Gutenberg

The village of Gibel was totally destroyed, and many houses in Tripoli were tumbled down.

From Project Gutenberg

Mr. Addison, whose abilities no man can doubt, was from diffidence totally unable to speak in the house.

From Project Gutenberg

The British transport Europa, having troops on board, was totally destroyed by fire opposite Brest, and 21 lives lost.

From Project Gutenberg

A Virginia tobacco-barn is totally unlike any other building under the sun.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• absolutely
• altogether
• completely
• entirely
• exactly
• fully
• perfectly
• quite
• thoroughly
• unconditionally
• utterly
• wholeheartedly
• wholly