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

Derived Forms

• word-for-word
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of word for word

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Example Sentences

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

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

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

She makes sure what we say is reported accurately word for word in the newspaper.

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers