word for word

noun
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.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English
Related forms
word-for-word, adjective
Examples from the web for word for word
  • Yet observe, line for line and almost word for word, how strangely they differ from prose.
  • Memorize it, although perhaps not word for word, and time yourself.
  • In between was two pages taken word for word from a book of bios.
  • All translations need to be original, word for word translations.
Idioms and Phrases with word for word

word for word

Exactly as written or spoken, as in That was the forecast, word for word. Chaucer used this idiom in the late 1300s.