technically
- 1Strictly according to the facts, even where they differ from common belief or everyday usage.
Technically, a peanut is a legume rather than a nut.
Bats are technically mammals, though many young children assume they are birds.
Note
At the head of a sentence it signals that a correction is coming, the precise fact set against what everyone assumes: Technically, a guinea pig is neither a pig nor from Guinea. Here the precise fact wins and the speaker means it. The Latin stricto sensu, "in the strict sense," is the learned near-equivalent.
- 2In a strictly formal or legal sense, even if the result is misleading.
The two countries are technically still at war, because they never signed a peace treaty.
He was technically within the speed limit, but far too fast for the icy road.
Similarofficially, legally, formally, nominally
Note
Where the fact-checking sense lets the precise fact win, this one concedes a formal point while hinting that it misses the real one: Montenegro was technically at war with Japan for 102 years, and Stalin was not technically head of state. Futurama mocked the habit in 2000 with a bureaucrat praised as "technically correct — the best kind of correct."
- 3In terms of technique, meaning the skill or method used.
The film is technically impressive, with clever lighting and smooth editing, but the story is thin.
Even technically brilliant players lose matches when their nerves give out.
Note
Critics use it to separate craft from feeling or story, and it often sits in a contrast: technically gifted, yet lacking passion; technically impressive, but thin on plot. It can praise outright too, as when a reviewer credits a film's straightforward camera work with drawing the viewer in. Techniquewise means the same.
- 4In a way that involves or draws on specialized knowledge.
The engineers talked fast and technically, leaving the rest of the room behind.
The guide is written technically, for readers who already know the field.
- 5In terms of what is possible with technology as it currently stands.
A bridge across the strait is technically feasible, though the cost would be enormous.
Until batteries improve, all-electric long-haul flights remain technically out of reach.
Similartechnologically
Note
It travels with possible, impossible and feasible, judging a plan by what today's technology allows, and technologically can replace it. The pairing can blur with the formal sense: technically possible may mean feasible with current machines or merely allowed on paper, so the surrounding talk of cost or engineering shows which is meant.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from technical + the adverb-forming suffix -ly.