Most people know the proper definition of "literally." It means you're describing something in exact words with no exaggerations. An example. "My boyfriend is literally hanging around the house all day" would imply that your boyfriend is swinging from the rafters and ceiling fans in the house. Interestingly, like the boyfriend example, the word "literally" has been misused over the years...literally. (Sorry...couldn't help myself there.) Side note - "My boyfriend is hanging around the house literally all day" works because you actually mean all day. When in doubt, remember that "literally" is the opposite of "figuratively." Except... The word was misused so often, that the dictionary gave a secondary definition to the word back in 2013. Merriam-Webster's new definition reads: "Used in an exaggerated way to emphasize a statement or description that is not literally true or possible." So now, literally can actually mean...figuratively. But then...why have the word to begin with, if it could be either? (See why English is such a hard second language to learn?) It's a common practice for the dictionary to change the definition of words based on popular use over time. And this misuse does indeed go back centuries. But, there's an interesting point to observe here. And the music analogy is coming, promise. (Thanks to the readers who are hanging in there.) By definition, the word "literally" was misused. Instead of correcting it as a society, we changed the definition of the word so it wouldn't be wrong anymore. So now, misusing the word is correct. If "literal" weren't so...well, literal...it might not be a big deal. But we've altered the meaning so it means the opposite, for crying out loud! How many other mistakes have we made that we decided to normalize instead of fix? (Mic drop...Just kidding...Picking mic back up again.) Music used to be part of everyone's education centuries ago. Now, "public school music teacher" is practically a synonym for "budget cuts." It's become normal for 80% of piano students to quit after the first few years of lessons. Is this just the way it is? Or, like changing the dictionary, have we made this normal just because everyone started doing it? We're too late to save the word "literally." But, every day is an opportunity to challenge the things that seem wrong, but the world has made normal. And that is awesome...literally.