How to Use totally in a Sentence

totally

adverb
  • I am totally upset you can't make it to the celebration.
  • That's a totally different issue.
  • This is almost a dessert and the next course is totally a dessert.
    Pete Wells, New York Times, 15 Nov. 2022
  • Dolin alone is totally fine, and gets your 98 percent of the way there.
    Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 27 Jan. 2024
  • And to be fair, my gym teachers, my peers, and I weren’t totally off the mark.
    Lindsay Lee Wallace, SELF, 11 Jan. 2023
  • His lungs were just totally ... gummed up, and like a mesh over them.
    Joel Rose, NPR, 2 May 2024
  • And that could be totally not in the beauty business and that would be OK with me.
    Hannah Sacks, Peoplemag, 26 Jan. 2024
  • By the time halftime came, Mater Dei was totally in charge with a 29-15 lead.
    Terry Monahan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Dec. 2022
  • The brunette also opts for a strict, sleek look, which is totally in right now.
    Melanie Paukner, Glamour, 6 Jan. 2023
  • The golf course is totally different to the pro-am yesterday with the rain and the wind.
    Todd Kelly, The Arizona Republic, 11 Nov. 2022
  • Who are the two or three players who are totally in sync?
    Sean Gregory, Time, 1 Aug. 2023
  • The pom-pom detail is totally adorable — *adds to cart.
    Abby Dupes, Seventeen, 7 Dec. 2022
  • Dads totally have a thing for using one bar of soap for their hair, face, and body.
    Leah Campano, Seventeen, 10 Nov. 2022
  • So again, totally different than the study that all of this is based on.
    CBS News, 9 July 2023
  • My boyfriend moved in after just a few months and then totally changed.
    Olivia Munson, USA TODAY, 23 Oct. 2022
  • All in all, there seems to be a broad consensus that, if Mike Johnson is in fact the adult in the room, the room is totally screwed.
    Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023
  • And just like that, my face is totally clean (no raccoon eyes here!).
    Lauren Dana Ellman, Allure, 24 Oct. 2022
  • All of this is to say—Stewart is totally killing her fashion game this year.
    Christian Allaire, Vogue, 9 Apr. 2024
  • He's held roles in television and film Hauer-King isn't totally new to the acting world.
    Benjamin Vanhoose, Peoplemag, 27 Feb. 2023
  • Spoke with my source — totally fake news and taken out of context.
    Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The lights, which are totally flush with the body panels, seem more likely to make production.
    Alex Kwanten, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
  • The leak is probably due to a faulty seal, though the engineers aren’t totally sure.
    Geoff Brumfiel, NPR, 1 June 2024
  • Yes, polka dots are totally here to stay, so get ready to pull out the joyful print and fully embrace the dot life.
    Hannah Oh, Seventeen, 10 Jan. 2023
  • Cindy Crawford just rocked a totally new look on Instagram, and her friends and fans are here for it.
    Emily Shiffer, Women's Health, 8 Feb. 2023
  • As for the Guardians Holiday Special, the tone looks totally bonkers.
    Chris Smith, BGR, 25 Oct. 2022
  • Their lawyers contacted us to say that those claims were totally false and have no basis in fact.
    Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 2024
  • Scrape the baked meatballs into the sauce and toss until they’re totally coated.
    Fox News Staff Fox News, Fox News, 5 Dec. 2023
  • The best part is the questions are totally random and far-ranging, so anyone can play.
    Sarah Yang, Sunset Magazine, 4 June 2024
  • People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.
    Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2024
  • Elsewhere in the stream, Kodak attempts to have a normal conversation with the Twitch streamer before totally bugging out, protruding his eyes with a face full of sweat.
    Marc Griffin, VIBE.com, 5 Nov. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'totally.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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