literal 
lit·eral (lit′ər əl)
adjective
- of, involving, or expressed by a letter or letters of the alphabet literal notation
- following or representing the exact words of the original; word-for-word a literal translation
- based on the actual words in their ordinary meaning; not figurative or symbolic the literal meaning of a passage
- giving the actual denotation of the word: said of the senses of words
- giving the original or earlier meaning of a word; etymological the literal meaning of ponder is “to weigh”
- habitually interpreting statements or words according to their actual denotation; prosaic; matter-of-fact a literal mind
- having a literal mind; lacking imagination
- real; not going beyond the actual facts; accurate; unvarnished the literal truth
- being so in fact but not in name; virtual the chairperson is a literal dictator
Etymology: ME litterall < MFr litteral < LL litteralis < L littera, letter
noun
Chiefly Brit. a typographical error
literal
modif.
Word for word
verbatim, literatim (Latin), verbal, written, natural, usual, ordinary, apparent, real, not figurative, not metaphorical, not allegorical, strict, following the exact words, unerring, veracious, scrupulous, veritable, accurate, critical, authentic, undeviating; to the letter. Antonyms
free*, interpretive*, figurative. * Exact
true, veritable, methodical; see accurate 1.
Converse of object
- include: To include a literal ] or - in the list, the simplest method is to enclose it in [ .
- use: You may wonder why you would ever use the element element if you can use literals.
Adjective modifier
- numeric: Numeric literals containing a decimal point or an exponent sign yield floating point numbers.
Modifies a noun
- translation: Its literal translation from its original Latin is ' to make into a thing ' .
- meaning: The word has the literal meaning of Divine Wisdom.
- rendering: Little sense of style; highly literal rendering which often makes poor sense in English.
- sense: To use the literal sense of the word ' conclude ' , they expected the wound to close.
- truth: The Bible cannot, must not, will not, be anything other than absolute literal truth.
Used with adjective complement
- make: He is an irresistible force who tries to shift an immovable object, an analogy that's made literal.
Noun used with modifier
- integer: Integer literals in the source code are by default treated as int values, which are suitable for use with all integer types.
- string: The type of string literals is array of char.
- character: Character array literals The place where strict const ness is not enforced is with character array literals.
- class: Feedback Class literals Java provides a second way to produce the reference to the Class object: the class literal.
Modifying Another Word
- purely: By way of introduction, we were urged not to think of the desert " art " in purely literal or esthetic terms.
- strictly: And the reason you would be wrong is because here Mark is not giving a strictly literal account of the event.
- fairly: Song Lyrics - Black Eyed Peas I came accross this site which provides a fairly literal translation to the song.
- absolutely: Note that when you make a translation ( unless it is absolutely literal ) you add on and subtract elements to the original.
- quite: With the kind of music I do you have to be direct and quite literal.
- too: In any event, the ' Time ' section of the proposal should not be too literal.
The power of money is a distinctly male power. Money speaks, but it speaks with a male voice. In the hands of women, money stays literal, count it out, it buys what it is worth or less. In the hands of men, money buys women, sex, status, dignity, esteem, recognition, loyalty, all manner of possibility.
Browse dictionary entries near literal
- literalism ›
- literality ›
- literalize ›
- literally ›
- literary ›
- literate ›
- literati ›
- literatim ›
- literature ›
- lith ›
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