Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • With emphasis or stress of voice.
  • Significantly; forcibly; in a striking or impressive manner.
  • Conspicuously; preëminently.
  • According to appearance; according to impression produced.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb With emphasis; forcibly; in a striking manner or degree; preëminently.
  • adverb obsolete Not really, but apparently.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In an emphatic manner; with emphasis.
  • adverb obsolete Not really, but apparently.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb without question and beyond doubt

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

emphatic +‎ -ally

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Examples

  • There are certain sentiments which we call emphatically human -- denying the honour of that name to those who lack them.

    In the South Seas Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

  • Benedict has received messages of support from around the world, with many commentators pointing out that from the outset of his pontificate he made it clear he intended to clean out what he termed emphatically "the filth" in the church, marking himself out as the first occupant of St Peter's throne publicly to declare war on sexual abuse by paedophile priests.

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED Mike Rivero 2010

  • The last time the government used such a term emphatically was during the Kargil war in

    Daily News & Analysis 2009

  • The history of political ideas begins, in fact, with the assumption that kinship in blood is the sole possible ground of community in political functions; nor is there any of those subversions of feeling, which we term emphatically revolutions, so startling and so complete as the change which is accomplished when some other principle -- such as that, for instance, of _local contiguity_ -- establishes itself for the first time as the basis of common political action.

    Ancient Law Its Connection to the History of Early Society Henry Sumner Maine 1855

  • The history of political ideas begins, in fact, with the assumption that kinship in blood is the sole possible ground of community in political functions; nor is there any of those subversions of feeling, which we term emphatically revolutions, so startling and so complete as the change which is accomplished when some other principle -- such as that, for instance, of LOCAL CONTIGUITY -- establishes itself for the first time as the basis of common political action. '

    Physics and Politics, or, Thoughts on the application of the principles of "natural selection" and "inheritance" to political society Walter Bagehot 1851

  • Eliakim was a good man, as appears by the title emphatically applied to him by God, "my servant Eliakim," (Isaiah 22: 20) and also in the discharge of the duties of his high station, in which he acted as a "father to the inhabitants of

    Smith's Bible Dictionary 1884

  • There's a way to do this story without making a massive chunk of your audience go "Huh?" and this emphatically is not it.

    MIND MELD: If We Ran Battlestar Galactica 2009

  • It would be no different from the process by which presidential candidates gain ballot access in most states, and it most emphatically is not run by “one government agency deciding which political campaigns get funded.”

    Matthew Yglesias » School Lunch Or; How to Make Government Work 2009

  • Ok so NOW she's going back to Obama not being electable when she said on national TV at the last debate that he emphatically is electable!

    Clinton: Obama more likely to lose 2008

  • Lest there be any confusion, Frederick emphatically is not the same person as Fred.

    Matthew Yglesias » Double Skim Gitmo Latte 2007

Comments

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  • "Emily has put on weight," said Tom emphatically.

    February 24, 2007