Very

Part of speech: adverb

Pronunciation: /ˈvɛɹi/

Definitions

1. To an extreme degree or in a high amount
2. To an intense extent or an exceptional level
3. In a manner that is notably significant or strongly emphasized

Etymology: Today "very" is an intensifier, but it began as a word meaning "true." Its ancestor was Latin "vērus," which carried the sense of genuine or real, and the same root gave Old French "verai," meaning true. Middle English borrowed that French form as "verray," and it kept the old adjective sense for centuries. Phrases like "the very man" once meant "the true man," and an adjective meaning "exact" or "actual" gradually drifted toward simple emphasis. The modern adverb grew out of that adjective. As "very" came to mark genuineness and exactness, speakers could also use it to amplify, so "very good" came to mean "truly good" and then simply "extremely good." This shift happened because a word stressing that something was real naturally started to stress how strongly something held. Its Germanic relative, Old English "wǣr," meaning true, is only a distant cousin, since the two words came into English by separate routes. Over time "very" also pushed aside several older Germanic intensifiers, including "swīþe" and "sore," which once carried the sense "very."

Synonyms: extremely, highly, really, truly, exceedingly

Antonyms: barely, slightly