word for word

American  

adverb

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.

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word for word Idioms  

1. Exactly as written or spoken, as in That was the forecast, word for word. Chaucer used this idiom in the late 1300s.

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Other Word Forms

• word-for-word
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of word for word

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

word for word

Often, Navatek composed language that ended up, word for word, in Senate funding requests, former employees said.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026

That’s almost word for word the same explanation Sarah Sanders gave when she left Trump’s first administration.

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026

“When we ask about it, they just tell us the standard line, which I can quote word for word: ‘We have no updates at this time,’” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Translated word for word, they become something parseable only by a bilingual transportation engineer, not by the people the projects are supposed to serve.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026

I’m more than familiar—I could recite it word for word, but I don’t tell her that.

From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson

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