Hi 辉 This must be literally (!) one of the most over-used and least understood words in the English language. It is generally used in colloquial speech to intensify the meaning of something. “The audience were literally falling off their seats with laughter” = the audience was laughing a lot. They were not actually falling off their seats, but the expression intensifies the description of the laughter. “I’m literally penniless” = I really have no money at all. There’s a few more examples here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:literally#English Your question has a number of mistakes: here is a corrected version. “What does the word ‘literally’ mean? How do I use it in a way that works? Could somebody give me several examples?” “what’s” is a short form of ‘what is’, so it is not appropriate in this context.

Since the early 20th century, literally has been widely used as an intensifier meaning “in effect, virtually,” a sense that contradicts the earlier meaning “actually, without exaggeration”: The senator was literally buried alive in the Iowa primaries. The parties were literally trading horses in an effort to reach a compromise. The use is often criticized; nevertheless, it appears in all but the most carefully edited writing. Although this use of literally irritates some, it probably neither distorts nor enhances the intended meaning of the sentences in which it occurs. The same might often be said of the use of literally in its earlier sense “actually”: The garrison was literally wiped out: no one survived. cowboy...

Hello 辉, Another meaning : When you take something literally it means you understand it exactly as it is said to you word for word, even when it is just a metaphor or an expression. In Neal's example : "The audience were falling off their seats with laughter." Here it is just an expression as he said to emphasize that they were laughing hard. It is not meant literally. If someone took it literally they would understand, that the audience really actually fell off their seats.