Singing Backstreet Boys To Solve A Mystery

What does “literal” mean as American slang?

Americans, especially Gen Z and millennials, use the word literal as a strong intensifier, often when they don’t mean it in the strict sense. Literal chills (when music gives you goosebumps), literal tears (when something is moving), I’m literally dying (when something is funny). The pattern attaches “literal” or “literally” to almost any reaction word for emphasis. Some grammar guides complain about this use; American English under 40 keeps using it anyway.

In this clip, a woman watches a friend sing the opening of I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys. Her response: “Literal chills.” The Backstreet Boys reference plus the literal intensifier places this firmly in late-1990s nostalgia and 2020s speech.