exactly
/ɪɡˈzæk(t).li/adverb, interjection
exactly is spelled E-X-A-C-T-L-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is excatly: about 70 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 35 of all searches for the word. Exactly is an adverb meaning “Without approximation; precisely”.
How many letters and syllables are in exactly?
| Letters | 7: E-X-A-C-T-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 141 times per million words; the 737th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 5; the most searched, excatly, about 70 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell exactly?
Exactly is spelled E-X-A-C-T-L-Y. 5 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 16 of the searches for exactly in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is exactly?
Exactly appears 141 times per million words in written English, the 737th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce exactly?
- /ɪɡˈzæk(t).li/
Exactly has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-exactly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of exactly
- more exactly comparative
- most exactly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does exactly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
Without approximation; precisely.
Measure exactly so we can be sure it is right.
- 2
Precisely, used to provide emphasis.
He did it that way exactly to prove the point.
interjection
- 1
Signifies agreement or recognition.
So you're saying that we have only three days left? – Yes, exactly!
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Exactly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | exactement |
| German | genau , ganz genau |
| Portuguese | exatamente |
| Spanish | exactamente, exacto, tal como, tal cual como , école |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does exactly come from?
From exact + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).