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What does what do you mean actually mean

“what do you mean”
Request for clarification
Confidence: High Checked on May 10, 2026

Summary

“What do you mean?” is an English phrase used to ask someone to explain or clarify a previous statement. It can also convey surprise, annoyance, or disagreement, depending on tone.

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Sources 59 searched

sciencedirect.com
natcorp.ox.ac.uk
corpora.lancs.ac.uk
  • Statistics in corpus linguistics

    Corpora are an unparalleled source of quantitative data for linguists. So corpus linguists often test or summarise their quantitative findings through statistics. Some other areas of linguistics also frequently appeal to statistical notions and tests. Psycholinguistic experiments, grammatical elicitation tests and survey-based investigations, for example, all commonly involve statistical tests of some sort. However, frequency data are so regularly produced in corpus analysis that most corpus-based studies undertake some form of statistical analysis, even if it is relatively basic and descriptive, e.g.

dictionary.cambridge.org
en.wiktionary.org
  • what do you mean - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

    From Wiktionary, the free dictionary · [edit] English phrasebook · [edit] [edit] what do you mean? A request for clarification of an anterior statement or question. An expression of surprise, annoyance, or disagreement to an anterior statement. What do you mean, it was all my fault?

ldoceonline.com
oreateai.com
forum.wordreference.com
  • "What do you mean?" | WordReference Forums

    Hello, friends. My newest finding is that "What do you mean?" has a reproachingly interrogative tone. Cambridge says, "used to show that you are annoyed or that you disagree." (1) Should we add "by xx" at the end of the sentence "What do you mean?" if you want to ask the meaning of a...

prepedu.com
  • What Do You Mean in English: Meaning, Usage & Examples

    Mastering its variations allows learners to participate actively in conversations, seek clarification, and avoid misunderstanding ... To fully understand and actively use “What do you mean?”, it's useful to know other common phrases that express similar ideas—such as asking someone to clarify, showing confusion, or requesting repetition.

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