I don't understand why I hear it as often as I do. It confuses me on a regular basis.

The word is virtually.
What is the difference between furniture being indestructible, and furniture being virtually
Indestructible ?

Or
Someone being a magician or being a virtual magician?

I am wondering if some of the people using this word are using it correctly .

The definition does not help me , off the Innernet anyway.

Thanks in advance for any attention you choose to give this.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
I don't understand why I hear it as often as I do. It confuses me on a regular basis.

The word is virtually.
What is the difference between furniture being indestructible, and furniture being virtually
Indestructible ?

In that context, "virtually" equates to "nearly" or "almost".

If you say a piece of furniture is "indestructible", it means it cannot be broken.

If you say furniture is "virtually indestructible", it means that it would take a whole lot to break it and/or that it shouldn't break unless due to extraordinary circumstances.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
The definition does not help me , off the Innernet anyway.

The ones I see have definitions listed like:

virtually
adverb
a) almost, or very nearly
b) for all practical purposes
c) by means of a computer, network, or virtual reality device

A and B are examples of what it means in the context you're talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
Someone being a magician or being a virtual magician?

I've never heard it used like that before.

But perhaps they're saying that someone accomplished something amazing, as if almost by magic (though not actually using magic).

Or perhaps they mean someone that does card tricks via videoconferencing?

So saying virtually indestructible,
Just sounds better than saying this product is not indestructible.

And saying that this new movie is virtually a masterpiece,

Means this movie is not actually a masterpiece.

So it's not an actual compliment then ?

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
And saying that this new movie is virtually a masterpiece,

Means this movie is not actually a masterpiece.

So it's not an actual compliment then ?

It's virtually a compliment.

It's literally killing us.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
So saying virtually indestructible,
Just sounds better than saying this product is not indestructible.

No. You're missing the "nearly/almost" part. Nearly indestructible = almost indestructible = virtually indestructible.

It means it's very close to being indestructible. That is, they're suggesting that it's tougher than most other furniture and would be really hard to break, but without making the impossible claim that it could never be destroyed by anything ever (which would make it actually indestructible, not just virtually indestructible.)

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
And saying that this new movie is virtually a masterpiece,

Means this movie is not actually a masterpiece.

So it's not an actual compliment then ?

Still a compliment, meaning that it's a really good movie and very close to being a masterpiece.

Whereas a bad movie or just an average movie wouldn't be described as "nearly a masterpiece".

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
So saying virtually indestructible,
Just sounds better than saying this product is not indestructible.

Indestructible means "We gotta replace it if you eff it up."

Virtually indestructible is lawyer-speak for "You tried too hard to eff it up, and we don't have to replace it."