word by word

word by word

1. One word at a time. I know this text is difficult to understand, so let's just go through it word by word. We'll need to go through the final draft word by word to ensure no errors made it through.

2. In or with the same exact words; verbatim. Hyphenated if used as an adjective before a noun. After seeing the play only once, he was able to repeat the monologue word by word. It was amazing. I don't need a word-by-word transcript of his testimony. You can just paraphrase it for me.

See also: by, word

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

word by word

one word at a time. We examined the contract word by word to make sure everything was the way we wanted. We compared the stories word by word to see what made them different.

See also: by, word

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.