How to Use exactly in a Sentence

exactly

adverb
  • The levers need to be exactly positioned.
  • That's exactly what the guys did as soon as Tran left the room.
    — Hannah Kirby, Journal Sentinel, 6 Aug. 2024
  • That’s exactly what Ellie and Zach bring to the bake-off in the U.S.
    — Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone, 14 May 2023
  • In the end, Max would not have lost a lot more, one point, exactly.
    — Madeline Coleman, New York Times, 14 June 2025
  • For the past 35 years, that’s exactly what Robb Report has done, with its Best of the Best awards.
    — Paul Croughton, Robb Report, 18 June 2023
  • How, exactly, would Lashley and the rest of The Hurt Business fit in?
    — Blake Oestriecher, Forbes, 12 Sep. 2024
  • The skewer is exactly as the name suggests: three munchkins on a stick.
    — Sabrina Weiss, Peoplemag, 20 Feb. 2024
  • Which is exactly what has left Uganda ill-equipped to deal with the virus.
    — Annalisa Merelli, Quartz, 12 Oct. 2022
  • However, with a record of 48-32, that's exactly where the team stands.
    — Jeremy Cluff, The Arizona Republic, 29 June 2023
  • For the most part, no two letters are rendered in exactly the same way.
    — Benj Edwards, Ars Technica, 12 Sep. 2024
  • The couple shared a son named Noah, who was born exactly five years to the date prior to John's death.
    — Stephanie Sengwe, People.com, 23 Mar. 2025
  • The film is exactly 3 hours long and is about the creation of the atomic bomb through the Manhattan Project.
    — Dina Kaur, The Arizona Republic, 21 July 2023
  • What's even more special is that the phase was exactly π.
    — Charles D. Brown Ii, Scientific American, 16 May 2023
  • That’s exactly the kind of review a PR team’s hoping to bury.
    — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 6 Nov. 2024
  • For Ghosh this was not exactly a question of method or form.
    — Aaron Matz, The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2022
  • So, why exactly will the duchess and the Sussex kids miss the coronation?
    — Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 13 Apr. 2023
  • Your Foot Type No two feet are exactly the same (even your own).
    — Samson McDougall, Health, 4 Aug. 2023
  • Here’s exactly how to keep your heart safe as the colder season creeps in.
    — Erica Sweeney, SELF, 30 Oct. 2023
  • Which towns and cities, exactly, have been sacked and plundered?
    — Paul Krugman, The Mercury News, 13 Mar. 2024
  • It was placed exactly where the hundred-foot steel tower that held the bomb once stood.
    — Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 24 Oct. 2024
  • Alcaraz now has five majors at the age of 22, same as Rafa Nadal did at exactly the same age.
    — Mike Lupica, New York Daily News, 14 June 2025
  • The maps can be exactly the same, but the Constitution must be obeyed.
    — New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 20 June 2024
  • And that’s exactly what happened, and that was the start of a downward spiral.
    — Jack Birle, Washington Examiner, 17 May 2023
  • Text the group chat and get packing because here’s exactly how to find cheap flights.
    — Leah Campano, Seventeen, 5 June 2023
  • By then, Akasha had a sense of exactly who had come knocking.
    — Andy Greenberg, Wired News, 22 May 2025
  • But that’s exactly what Alex Honnold set out to do back in 2017.
    — WIRED, 23 Sep. 2022
  • The best thing to do is exactly the opposite: Get more light, get out of bed, and get active.
    — Karen Pallarito, Health, 8 June 2024
  • A day later, the world would know exactly what McMahon was up to.
    — Joe Otterson, Variety, 27 Jan. 2023
  • Ask yourself: What exactly would this look like at work?
    — Rebecca Fraser-Thill, Forbes.com, 27 June 2025
  • But this is exactly the kind of cinematic flag-plant that inspires such devotion, and such genuine awe.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 June 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'exactly.' 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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