Very

How to spell very

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce very

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does very mean?

1. adverbTo a high degree; extremely.
2. adjectiveUsed to emphasise an exact or precise thing; the actual one.

Very in a sentence

• adverb

  The meeting ran very late into the evening.

• adjective

  This is the very document we needed for the audit.

• adverb

  She was very careful with the budget this quarter.

• adjective

  He found the keys in the very spot where he had left them.

Where does very come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This little word travelled a long way from a word that originally meant 'true'. It comes from the Latin verus, meaning 'true' or 'real', which gave rise to the Old French verai (also 'true', the ancestor of modern French vrai). English borrowed it in the 1200s as 'verray', first used as an adjective meaning 'genuine' or 'real', as in 'the very man I sought'. Over time the adjective weakened into an intensifying adverb meaning 'to a high degree', which is its dominant role today. The original 'true' sense still survives in fixed phrases like 'the very truth' and in relatives such as 'verify' and 'verity', which keep the Latin root visible.

How the word is built

• ver- (from verus: true)
• -y (adjectival/adverbial ending)

Words that sound like very

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• vary: To differ, change, or take on a range of different forms over time or between cases.