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

Etymology

Origin of word for word

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Example Sentences

That doesn’t mean your private chats about your colleague or spouse are going to show up word for word in someone else’s chat session a year or two from now.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

The title came to her first — “At the Beach, in Every Life” — and the song poured out of her, nearly word for word.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 27, 2025

Often, “Eddington” plays out so formally and predictably that it’s like watching someone write out the thing that’s making them anxious on paper, word for word.

From Salon • Jul. 20, 2025

They point to the statement given by a different man which they say is "almost identical, word for word" to the statement given by Kanwaljit Singh.

From BBC • Mar. 7, 2025

"You wrote out those lines as quickly as Sander said them. A trick like that could be really useful. Why, you could copy down the plays of the Lord Admiral's men, word for word!"

From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood