0 using exactly the same words: --
1 using exactly the same words that someone spoke or wrote: --
a word-for-word copy of a government report
I can give you a word-for-word transcript of what we talked about.
2 exactly as spoken or written: --
She copied it word for word from the encyclopedia.
In cases where word-for-word literalness was determined to be unacceptable for modern readers, changes were made in the direction of more current idioms.
Idiomatic expressions and phrases, sometimes translated word-for-word, can be borrowed, usually from a language that has prestige at the time.
They then had to relay the story, word-for-word, to a group of listeners nearby to get their next clue.
He criticized the film for being so close to the 1984 original sometimes song for song and word-for-word.
Some sentences appear copied word-for-word with even spelling mistakes being reproduced from the original articles.
Each call is usually repeated word-for-word by the responders.
In such a language, "the man wearing a hat" might translate, word-for-word, into "the wears a hat man".
They argue that to conceptualize fluent reading as involving a word-for-word match promotes an inefficient or slow and labored approach to reading.