in every sense of the word
Truly and thoroughly
In every sense of the word is a phrase used to emphasize that something fully and completely deserves the label being applied to it.
When you say someone is a hero in every sense of the word, you mean they embody all the qualities associated with heroism—not just technically or partially.
The phrase adds rhetorical weight, asserting that the description holds up under any interpretation or angle of consideration.
- figure of speechNonliteral expressive phrase
- entiretyThe whole of something
- in its entiretyWithout anything omitted
- turn of phraseDistinctive verbal expression
- nuanceSlight shade of difference
comprehensiveness · wholeness · connotation · totality · the whole nine yards · absoluteness · exhaustive · applicability · idiom · holistic · polysemy · inclusivity · metaphorical language · colloquialism · interpretation · saying · set phrase · semiotics
in every sense of the wordpartially
To an incomplete extent
to some extent · barely · halfway · sort of · kind of
in every sense of the wordmetaphorically
Symbolically, not literally
in name only · nominally · so to speak · as it were · in a manner of speaking
senses, sensed, sensory, sensation, sensational, sensible, sensitive, sensitivity, sensor