Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb In the immediate presence of someone; in person.
  • adverb Without anyone else being involved or considered.
  • adverb As far as oneself is concerned; in one's opinion.
  • adverb As a person.
  • adverb In a personal manner.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a personal manner; in person; by bodily presence; not by representative or substitute: as, to be personally persent; to deliver a letter personally.
  • With respect to an individual; as an individual.
  • As regards one's personal exitence or individuality: as, to remain personally the same being.

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

  • adverb In a personal manner; by bodily presence; in person; not by representative or substitute.
  • adverb With respect to an individual; as regards the person; individually; particularly.
  • adverb With respect to one's individuality; as regards one's self.

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

  • adverb In a personal manner
  • adverb in person
  • adverb Concerning oneself.
  • adverb As a person.

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

  • adverb concerning the speaker
  • adverb as a person
  • adverb in the flesh; without involving anyone else
  • adverb in a personal way
  • adverb as yourself

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English personally, personely, personallich, personaliche, equivalent to personal +‎ -ly.

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Examples

  • * Similarly Obama delivered the word personally to Michael Froman that he would have to voluntarily give up his Citigroup bonus if he wanted to join the government.

    THE PROMISE JONATHAN ALTER 2010

  • * Similarly Obama delivered the word personally to Michael Froman that he would have to voluntarily give up his Citigroup bonus if he wanted to join the government.

    THE PROMISE JONATHAN ALTER 2010

  • * Similarly Obama delivered the word personally to Michael Froman that he would have to voluntarily give up his Citigroup bonus if he wanted to join the government.

    THE PROMISE JONATHAN ALTER 2010

  • Thankfully, FUNimation has decided to take on the title personally now by bringing over the third and fourth stages of the show while also planning to re-dub and re-work the first two stages for later release.

    Mania News Feed Chris Beveridge 2010

  • Thankfully, FUNimation has decided to take on the title personally now by bringing over the third and fourth stages of the show while also planning to re-dub and re-work the first two stages for later release.

    Mania News Feed Chris Beveridge 2010

  • In fact, some of them were truly vitriolic, mostly from students (presumably) who had taken the "you" in the title personally, and decided to respond in kind.

    WordPress.com News 2009

  • Maxwell Salzberg, Daniel Grippi and Raphael Sofaer - floated their idea for what they called a "personally controlled, do-it-all, open-source social network" on an Internet fund-raising platform called Kickstarter.

    NYT > Home Page By PAUL VITELLO 2011

  • This will make it much easier for him to pay the massive fines and damages he will incur when he loses the multiple court cases where he personally is the named defendent.

    Think Progress » ThinkFast: April 19, 2010 2010

  • I think the better question is: will the anti-American Attorney General accept responsibility for his actions, and admit that he, personally, is responsible for allowing someone to be attacked or killed simply due to his anti-American zealotry?

    Think Progress » Virginia attorney general instructs state colleges to stop protecting gay students from discrimination. 2010

  • What I think would be best personally, is a moratorium on all new coal plants – we have enough of them to deal with. (besides, so many plans for new coal plants have gone to the chopping block anyway)

    Wonk Room » Climate Equity Alliance Establishes Principles For Green Economic Reform 2009

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