"So unless anyone can come up with an alternative, I think we’re stuck with the widespread use of “literally” to mean “not literally at all”. I’m not even sure this is such a bad thing. Many words have more than one meaning, and with “literally” it’s pretty easy to tell them apart. If what someone describes as “literally” true is plausible—”he was standing literally three feet away from me”—then she probably means “literally” literally. And if it’s clearly implausible—”his eyes literally popped out of his head”—then it’s probably a figure of speech. It’s literally as simple as that."
Misuse of words: Literally going on for decades | The Economist
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