virtually

What it means

1. Almost but not quite.

   With our Medicare supplemental insurance plan, there are virtually no claim forms to fill out. (Advertisement)

   2 more examples

   By surviving the first six minutes Hargreaves matched the total amount of playing time he had managed previously in virtually three years - and by scoring his first goal since April 2008 he set the hosts on their way to a fifth win of the season in all competitions.

   2011 September 21, Sam Lyon, “Man City 2-0 Birmingham”, in BBC Sport

   Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.

   2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, archived from the original on 01 Apr 2019, page 68

   Synonyms: as good as, more or less, nearly, practically · Antonyms: actually

2. In essence or functionally, but not in fact, formally, or technically.

   virtually a member of the family

   Synonyms: effectively, practically

3. algebraOf a subgroup of finite index.

   In this case W has a diagram with 2 vertices and one edge labelled ∞, and is therefore the infinite dihedral group. Thus W is virtually ℤ.

   1998, Daryl Cooper, D. D. Long, A. W. Reid, “Infinite Coxeter Groups are Virtually Indicable”, in Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, volume 41, page 309

   1 more example

   In this paper, we are mainly concerned with homogeneity in the class of finitely generated virtually free groups, i.e. finitely generated groups with a free subgroup of finite index.

   2018, Simon André, “Virtually free groups are almost homogeneous”, in arXiv, section 1

In a sentence

With our Medicare supplemental insurance plan, there are virtually no claim forms to fill out. (Advertisement)

Where it comes from

1. Middle Englishvertually
2. Englishvirtually

From Middle English vertually; equivalent to virtual + -ly.