Meaning of the word virtually

[EndlessHope]

Hello Teachers,
I hope you are all feeling great.
I'm confused about the meaning of the word "Virtually", I looked it up and I found that it means "almost", and at the same time the dictionary equates its meaning to the word "practically" as I show below, and for me, "almost" is way different than "practically", I may be missing something.

That's exactly what the search result in longman dictionary gave me:

Virtually:
almost [= practically]:
1. Virtually all the children come to school by bus.
2. He was virtually unknown before running for office.

I translated the word into my mother-tongue language and the result was "practically" NOT "almost".

Thanks.
Endless Hope

[Kitosdad]

EH, you limited your search and found only a couple of examples.

Virtually and practically are almost the same.

" I am virtually broke."
" I am practically penniless."
" I am almost skint."

All depends on the context in which they are used.

Bill.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Alan]

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Hi Endlesshope,

I have to be honest and say that 'virtually' has been used such a lot that the word has lost its original meaning. It's probably best to keep to the meaning of 'in reality' 'in fact'. 'Almost' has the sense of 'not completely' and 'practically' has the meaning of 'in practice'. Imagine a situation where someone at work does all the work although they are only the deputy as in: Charlie is the boss but Fred (the deputy) is the one who virtually runs the business. The business almost collapsed last year because it almost ran out of orders but Fred took control and practically stopped the business from failing.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[EndlessHope]

[EndlessHope]