to the letter

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Adverb

to the letter (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Literally, exactly, following the rules as written.

   You should follow what your boss said to the letter. Otherwise, you'll lose your job.

   • 2011, Phil McNulty, “Euro 2012: Montenegro 2-2 England”, in BBC News‎^[1]:

     Capello warned his players that caution was not an option as they went in search of the result that would take England to Euro 2012. And his message was carried out to the letter in the opening exchanges as England played with a tempo and threat Montenegro struggled to subdue.

Coordinate terms

• without fail

Translations

idiomatic for “literally”, following the rules as they're written

• Burmese: တစ်သဝေမတိမ်း (my) (tacsa.wema.tim:)
• Catalan: a la lletra, al peu de la lletra
• Cherokee: ᏗᏟᎶᏍᏔᏅ (ditlilostanv)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

  Mon:အတိုၚ်လိက်ဂှ်, အတိုၚ်အက္ခရ်ဂှ်

• Finnish: kirjaimellisesti (fi)
• French: à la lettre (fr), au pied de la lettre (fr), à la virgule près (fr)
• Galician: ao pé da letra
• German: bis ins Kleinste (de)
• Italian: alla lettera
• Japanese: 細大を漏らさず (saidai o morasazu)
• Korean: 글자 그대로 (geulja geudaero)
• Luxembourgish: wuertwiertlech
• Norwegian: til punkt og prikke
• Polish: dosłownie (pl), co do joty (pl)
• Portuguese: ao pé da letra (pt), à letra, à risca (pt)
• Spanish: a la letra, al pie de la letra (es), a pies juntillas (es), al dedillo, a rajatabla, a la ley
• Swedish: till punkt och pricka (sv)
• Turkish: harfiyen (tr), harfi harfine

See also

• by the book
• by the numbers
• letter of the law
• literalism