very

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English verray, verrai (“true”), from Old French verai (“true”) (Modern French: vrai), from assumed Vulgar Latin *vērācus, alteration of Latin vērāx (“truthful”), from Latin vērus (“true”), from Proto-Indo-European *wēr- (“true, benevolent”). Cognate with Old English wǣr (“true, correct”), Dutch waar (“true”), German wahr (“true”), Icelandic alvöru (“earnest”). Displaced native Middle English sore, sār (“very”) (from Old English sār (“grievous, extreme”) (Cf. German: sehr, Dutch: zeer), Middle English wel (“very”) (from Old English wel (“well, very”)). More at warlock.

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˈvɛɹɪ/, SAMPA: /"vEr\I/
• (UK, US) IPA: /ˈvɛɹi/, SAMPA: /"vEr\i/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Hyphenation: ver‧y
• Rhymes: -ɛri

Adjective

very (comparative verier, superlative veriest)

1. True, real, actual

   The fierce hatred of a very woman

   The very blood and bone of our grammar

2. The same; identical.

   He proposed marriage in the same restaurant, at the very table where they first met.

   That's the very tool that I need.

3. With limiting effect: mere.
   • 1603, John Florio, trans. Michel de Montaigne, Essays, I.40:

     We have many examples in our daies, yea in very children, of such as for feare of some slight incommoditie have yeelded unto death.

Translations

the same; identical

Czech: týž (cs), tentýž (cs) Dutch: zelfde (nl), dezelfde (nl), hetzelfde (nl) French: même (fr) German: derselbe (de) Hungarian: ugyanaz (hu), egyazon (hu) Japanese: 正にその(ja) masani sono, 正にこの(ja) masani kono Macedonian: сам (mk) (sam), самиот (mk) (sámiot)

Norwegian: samme (no) Polish: identyczny (pl) Russian: самый (ru) (sámyj), тот самый (ru) (tot sámyj) Scots: vera Scottish Gaelic: aon (gd), ceart (gd), ceudna (gd), dearbh (gd) Tagalog: talaga (tl), talagang (tl)

Adverb

very (not comparable)

1. to a great extent or degree; extremely; exceedingly

   You’re very tall.

2. true, truly

   He tried his very best.

Usage notes

• When used in their senses as degree adverbs, "very" and "too" never modify verbs.

Synonyms

• (to a great extent): ever so

Translations

to a high degree

Arabic: جِدًا (ar) (jíddan) Armenian: շատ (šat) Belarusian: вельмі (be) (vél'mi) Bulgarian: много (bg) (mnógo) Catalan: molt (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 很 (cmn) (hĕn), 太 (cmn) (tài), 非常 (cmn) (fēicháng), 超 (cmn) (chāo) Czech: velmi (cs) Dutch: zeer (nl), heel (nl), erg (nl) Esperanto: tre (eo) Finnish: erittäin (fi), kovin (fi), hyvin (fi) French: très (fr) German: sehr (de), ganz (de) Greek: πολύ (el) (polý) Hebrew: מאוד (he) (məód) Hindi: बहुत (hi) (bahut) Hopi: a'ni m., hin'ur f. Hungarian: nagyon (hu) Icelandic: mjög (is), ákaflega (is), afar (is), ýkja (is), fjarska (is), einkar (is) Ido: tre Interlingua: multo (ia) Irish: an- (ga), ana- (ga) Italian: molto (it) Japanese: とても (ja) (totemó), かなり (ja) (kanari), 非常に (ja) (ひじょうに, hijōni), 凄く (ja) (すごく, sugoku), 大変 (ja) (たいへん, taihén), 大分 (ja) (だいぶ, daibu), 随分 (ja) (ずいぶん, zuibun), ずっと (ja) (zutto), めちゃ (ja) (mecha), めっちゃ (ja) (metcha) (slang, from Kansai dialect), 超 (ja) (ちょう, chō) (slang), ばり (ja) (bari) (Hakata dialect), つるつる (ja) (tsuru tsuru) (Fukui dialect) Khmer: ណាស់ (nah) Korean: 아주 (ko) (aju), 매우 (ko) (mae-u), 너무 (ko) (neomu) Ladino: muy Latin: use superlative adjective; maximē (la), summē (la) Latvian: ļoti Lithuanian: labai (lt)

Lojban: mutce (jbo) Luxembourgish: ganz (lb) Macedonian: многу (mk) (mnógu), мошне (mk) (móšne) Navajo: ayóo Norwegian: veldig (no) Persian: بسیار (fa) (besiyâr) Polish: bardzo (pl) Portuguese: muito (pt) Romanian: foarte (ro) Russian: очень (ru) (óčen’), весьма (ru) (ves'má), изрядно (ru) (izrjádno), (colloquial) дюже (ru) (djúže) Scots: gey, unco, vera, Scottish Gaelic: glè (gd), ro (gd), fìor (gd) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: вр̏ло (sh) Roman: vȑlo (sh) Seri: áa Slovene: zelo (sl) Spanish: muy (es) Swedish: mycket (sv), väldigt (sv) Tagalog: talaga (tl), talagang (tl), sobra (tl), sobrang (tl) Thai: มาก (th) (mâak) Turkish: çok (tr) Ukrainian: дуже (uk) (dúže) Urdu: بہت (ur) (bahut) Vietnamese: rất (vi) (placed before the word to intensify), lắm (vi) (placed after the word to intensify) Volapük: vemo (vo) Welsh: iawn (cy) West Frisian: tige (fy), frij (fy) Yiddish: זייער (yi) (zeyer)

true, truly

Armenian: իսկական (iskakan) Czech: skutečně (cs) Dutch: echt (nl), uiterst (nl) Japanese: 本当 (ほんとう, hontō), 実に (じつに, jitsu-ni) Macedonian: нај- (mk) (naj-) Norwegian: veldig (no); aller (no) Polish: naprawdę (pl)

Russian: самый (ru) (sámyj) Scots: gey, unco, vera, Scottish Gaelic: fìor (gd) Seri: áa Swedish: allra (sv) (with a superlative), sann (sv) (archaic) Tagalog: talaga (tl), talagang (tl)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Basque: guztiz, txit, arrunt, oso, hagitz, net, biziki, zeharo Mandarin: 非常 (fēicháng) French: même Indonesian: amat, sangat, nian, ～sekali

Javanese: tenan Slovak: veľmi Turkish: tam Welsh: reit

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: than · some · other · #67: very · upon · man · may

Anagrams

• ev'ry