Library / English Dictionary

PRACTICALLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(degree adverb used before a noun phrase) for all practical purposes but not completely

Example:

practically everything in Hinduism is the manifestation of a god

Synonyms:

much; practically

Classified under:

Adverbs

Sense 2

Meaning:

In a practical manner

Example:

a brilliant man but so practically inept that he needed help to cross the road safely

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

practical (concerned with actual use or practice)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Almost; nearly

Example:

there was practically no garden at all

Classified under:

Adverbs

Credits

 Context examples: 

Being practically on the frontier—for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina—it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The seventh round, however, showed the reserve strength of the hardy old fighter, and lengthened the faces of those layers of odds who had imagined that the fight was practically over, and that a few finishing rounds would have given the smith his coup-de-grâce.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is, as I have said, a labyrinth of an old house, especially the original wing, which is now practically uninhabited; but we ransacked every room and cellar without discovering the least sign of the missing man.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I felt, however, that when Whitney was once confined in the cab my mission was practically accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular adventures which were the normal condition of his existence.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

While, previously, practically all the sludge was dumped, the new regulations are stricter, requiring the waste to be sterilised and stabilised, since its incorrect handling can lead to public health problems due to microbial contamination and heavy metals.

(Scientists validate a new technology that transforms sewage sludge into fertilizer more efficiently, University of Granada)

Your most important date this month will be when the new moon solar eclipse will arrive on December 25, and this eclipse will practically open the door to a previously bolted shut vault, almost magically.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Both were agreed that the monsters were practically brainless, that there was no room for reason in their tiny cranial cavities, and that if they have disappeared from the rest of the world it was assuredly on account of their own stupidity, which made it impossible for them to adapt themselves to changing conditions.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am practically industrious—painstaking, a workman to execute with perseverance and labour—but besides this there is a love for the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He had opened up for me the world of the real, of which I had known practically nothing and from which I had always shrunk.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

For some years he has practically withdrawn from the business, in which he is said to have massed considerable wealth.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)