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Literal   /lˈɪtərəl/   Listen
Literal

adjective
1.
Being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something.  Synonyms: actual, genuine, real.  "A literal solitude like a desert" , "A genuine dilemma"
2.
Without interpretation or embellishment.
3.
Limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text.  Antonym: figurative.
4.
Avoiding embellishment or exaggeration (used for emphasis).
noun
1.
A mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind.  Synonyms: erratum, literal error, misprint, typo, typographical error.



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literal error
literal interpretation
literalness


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"Literal" Quotes from Famous Books



... still more striking beauty about the saying, if we give the full literal meaning to the word 'strength.' It is used by our translators, I suppose, in a somewhat archaic and peculiar signification, namely, that of a stronghold. At all events the Hebrew means a fortress, a place where men may live safe and secure; and if we take that ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren
... finished the chapter, reading it aloud. And here I quote, from the published Journal of the late Chief Justice, an entry, written immediately after the meeting, and bearing unmistakable evidence that it is almost a literal ...
— Our American Holidays: Lincoln's Birthday • Various
... thus leaves the way open to say that life must have originated by just such a literal creation as is recorded in the first ...
— The Church, the Schools and Evolution • J. E. (Judson Eber) Conant
... planter gave no more heed to the pedigree of his slaves than he did to that of his cattle; all alike were bought and sold in the open market, and neither one nor the other had any rights or privileges apart from the will of their owners. The cabin of the slave family was, in a very literal sense, what its name implied—a cabin and nothing more. The household was not supposed to need more than one room; the furniture was, of course, as rude as the hovel itself, and, though the apartment would be well ventilated, glass windows were not considered necessary. A pallet on the ...
— From Slave to College President - Being the Life Story of Booker T. Washington • Godfrey Holden Pike
... "Ovidius utroque lascivior" and he could not have given a terser or more comprehensive criticism. Of all Latin poets, not excepting even Plautus, Ovid possesses in the highest degree the gift of facility. His words probably express the literal truth, when he says— ...
— A History of Roman Literature - From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius • Charles Thomas Cruttwell


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