Meaning

• True, real, actual.

  "He tried his very best."

• The same; identical.

  "He proposed marriage in the same restaurant, at the very table where they first met."

• With limiting effect: mere.

Meaning

• To a great extent or degree.

  "Not very many (of them) had been damaged."

• Conforming to fact, reality or rule; true.

• (with superlatives) Used to firmly establish that nothing else surpasses in some respect.

  "He was the very best runner there."