not really

Adverb

Meaning

To a low degree, not particularly, not especially.
I’m not really hungry now, so let’s have dinner later.

Not actually (a hypothetical will not, in fact, come to pass), often rhetorical.
You’re not really going to marry him, are you?

Synonyms

Antonyms

Examples

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility. Sigmund Freud

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends. Aristotle

An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head. Eric Hoffer

I rarely believe anything, because at the time of believing I am not really there to believe. Gertrude Stein

You do not really know your friends from your enemies until the ice breaks. Icelandic Proverb

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. Russian Proverb

Close letter words and terms