Very is a degree modifier - or intensifier - that is frequently overused. There is nothing wrong with very but you may not want to use it very much. If you have a story, essay or another type of paper that has an excessive amount of the word "very" then you have a very easy problem to fix. You just need to find a synonym for the words you are modifying. For example, the very bad man could be changed to the evil man or wicked man or wretched man.

You can use resources like Synonym.com and Thesaurus.com to find synonyms. Here you will find many alternatives to cure your "very" overuse problem.

There are also some resources that specifically address alternatives for very.

GrammarCheck offers an infographic featuring 147 alternatives for very. Some examples they give are:

• Fearful instead of very afraid
• Costly instead of very expensive
• Brilliant instead of very intelligent
• Deafening instead of very loud
• Sluggish instead of very slow

Digital Synopsis offers another very alternatives infographic with ideas like:

• Exact instead of very accurate
• Adorable instead of very cute
• Swift instead of very fast
• Thunderous instead of very loud

In case you are curious, the word very originates with Middle English. It was originally derived from similar French and Latin words.