exactly vs about vs approximately
Definitions
adverb
- indicating exactness or preciseness
- in a precise manner
- just as it should be
Examples
Who is willing to believe that Alexandria is exactly 5000 stadia from Syene, whatever the value of the stadium?
A lot of us are curious to know exactly what the navy has been told to do.
If there was any hope of holding on to even a shred of her dwindling self-respect, she should do exactly what she knew Margo would do—close the laptop, take her de-scrunchied, perfumed, and nearly thonged self down to the nearest club, pick up the first passably good-looking stranger who asked her to dance, and bring him back to the apartment for some safe but anonymous sex.
Definitions
adverb
- used of movement to or among many different places or in no particular direction
- in rotation or succession
- in or to a reversed position or direction
- (of quantities) imprecise but fairly close to correct
- (of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but
adjective
- on the move
Examples
If you wonder about ‘furphy’, as I did, here's a gloss and explanation.
As I did at FIAC, I selected 18 galleries and asked their most anglophonic expert to pick an image and talk about it for under two minutes.
Spending on a perennial effort to expand gambling at race tracks, known as "racino," increased four-fold to about $620,000 in 2010.
