Very

Pronunciation in accents without the w, English-language_vowel_changes_before_historic_/r/#Mary.E2.80.93marry.E2.80.93merry_merger, "Mary, marry, merry" merger in accents with the

• RP IPA: /ˈvɛɹɪ/
• UK IPA: /ˈvɛɹi/
• Rhymes: -É›ri

Origin

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")), and Middle English swith ("quickly; very") (from Old English swīþe ("very"). More at warlock.

Full definition of very

Adjective

1. True, real, actual.
   The fierce hatred of a very woman.
   The very blood and bone of our grammar.
   He tried his very best.
• Bible, Genesis xxvii. 21whether thou be my very son Esau or not
• John Milton (1608-1674)The very essence of truth is plainness and brightness.
• Edmund Burke (1729-1797)I looked on the consideration of public service or public ornament to be real and very justice.
• 2012, November 7, Matt Bai, Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.
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.
• 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher Chapter 1, Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work.
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.

Adverb

1. To a great extent or degree; extremely; exceedingly.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 13, “… They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
2. You’re very tall.
3. True, truly.
   He was the very best runner there.

Usage notes

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

Synonyms

• (to a great extent) ever so, main dialectal, sore archaic, swith dialectal

Anagrams

• ev'ry