English Reference

Word

verbatim

Phoneticsver·ba·tim

US/vɝˈbeɪtəm/

UK/vɜːbˈeɪtɪm/

Definitions

01word for word

C1

adv. in exactly the same words as were used originally.

adv. in a manner that follows the original source word for word, without paraphrase or alteration.

“The student copied the paragraph verbatim from the website without giving credit.”

“The witness was asked to repeat the conversation verbatim, though she admitted her memory of the specific phrasing was beginning to fade.”

Formal

Usage

Typically follows the verb it modifies, such as 'repeat', 'copy', or 'quote'.

Antonyms

02exactly matching

C1

adj. describing a piece of writing or speech that is an exact copy of the original.

adj. corresponding exactly with the original source; non-gradable.

“The newspaper published a verbatim report of the president's speech.”

“The legal team required a verbatim transcript of the deposition to identify any inconsistencies in the testimony.”

Formal

Usage

Usually placed before the noun it describes.

Real-World Examples

“Beveridge’s words are spoken verbatim by actor Simon Callow.”
The Guardian · 1 Sept 2026
“Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim.”
The Daily Guardian · 2 Jul 2026
“Transformers, the workhorses of current LLMs, have eidetic (verbatim) memory “in context”, but only until tokens slide out of context.”
Amazon Science · 18 Nov 2024
“Consider the case of a language model which verbatim memorizes text.”
Anthropic · 5 Jan 2023

Etymology

Attested in English since 1481 (therefore considered a Middle English derivation by some): from Medieval Latin verbātim (“word for word”), from Latin verbum (“word”) + -ātim (adverbial suffix).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry

Level
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Occasional
Updated

Scan code

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English Reference