Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Literal |
LiteralAdjective1. Being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something; "her actual motive"; "a literal solitude like a desert"- G.K.Chesterton; "a genuine dilemma". 2. Without interpretation or embellishment; "a literal translation of the scene before him". 3. Limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text; "a literal translation". 4. Lacking stylistic embellishment; "a literal description"; "wrote good but plain prose"; "a plain unadorned account of the coronation"; "a forthright unembellished style". 5. Of the clearest kind; usually used for emphasis; "it's the literal truth"; "a matter of investment, pure and simple". 6. (of a translation) corresponding word for word with the original; "literal translation of the article"; "an awkward word-for-word translation". Noun1. A mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "literal" was first used: sometime in the late 14th century. (references) |
Etymology: Literal \Lit"er*al\, adjective. [French lit['e]ral, litt['e]ral, Latin litteralis, literalis, from littera, litera, a letter. See Letter.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Literal |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Many traditional academic analyses of language divided linguistic expressions into two classes: literal and figurative. Expressions said to be in figurative language are called figures of speech.
Traditional analyses
In the traditional analyses, words in literal expressions denote what they mean according to common or dictionary usage, while words in figurative expressions denote something other than what they mean according to common or dictionary usage. Often, in this framework, a particular instance of figurative language can/must be reduced to literal language in order to find out what the expression might be intended to mean.
Sometimes the literal meaning of a particular figure of speech is clear. We can confidently interpret the figure, "The ground is thirsty," to mean "the ground is dry" because we know that the ground cannot literally feel thirst (or anything else, for that matter). Other times, it is harder to pinpoint the literal meaning of a figure of speech. If someone says, "When I first saw her, my soul began to quiver," he might mean, "When I first saw her, I began to fall in love," or "When I first saw her, I began to panic," or something else entirely. Whereas the ground's thirst can only sensibly apply to its dryness, the soul's quivering could refer to a whole range of feelings, including mutually exclusive ones. Only someone familiar with the speaker's feelings could accurately interpret this statement.
How many kinds of figurative language are there? Classical and traditional linguistics by some counts identified more than two hundred and fifty different figures. More recently, some have boiled the number into a much smaller number; some, for example, claim to be able to classify all figurative language as either metaphor or metonymy.
Operational definitions
XX has proposed an operational definition for an expression's literal meaning: it's whatever you would take the expression to mean if you were to receive a printed copy of the expression from an anonymous source and read it, having no context whatsoever.
Figurative as used by Searle and friends
...basically anything that fails the above "letter test". This is supposed to contrast not only with metaphor and poetic language, but also with, e.g., indirect requests.
Contesting the literal/figurative distinction
Note that most modern academic analyses of language no longer maintain a strict distinction between literal and figurative language. Cognitive linguistics, in particular, may ultimately declare all distinction between literal language and figurative language outdated. Consider what cognitive linguists Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner have to say:
In other words, "literal meaning" is not a special sort of meaning; it is only the meaning we are most likely to assign to a word or phrase if we know nothing about the context in which it is to be used.
- ...what gets called literal meaning is only a plausible default in minimally specified contexts. It is not clear that the notion "literal meaning" plays any privileged role in the on-line construction of meaning. (Fauconnier and Turner, p. 69)
For Further Reading
- Fauconnier and Turner. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind's Hidden Complexities. Basic Books. New York: 2002.
- Macbeth, John Walker Vilant, The Might and Mirth of Literature, Harper and Brothers, New York: 1875. Macbeth discusses more than two hundred classically- and traditionally-recognized figures, and gives examples from extant literature.
- Bullinger, E. W, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, Eyre and Spottiswoodes, London: 1898; Reprint, Baker, Grand Rapids: 1984. ISBN 0-8010-0559-0. In addition to examples of figures from the Bible, Bullinger presents a classification system for traditionally-recognized figures.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Literal and figurative language."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| LIT | English | Literal | Computing |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: LiteralSynonyms: actual (adj), genuine (adj), plain (adj), pure and simple (adj), real (adj), unembellished (adj), word-for-word (adj), erratum (n), literal error (n), misprint (n), typo (n), typographical error (n). (additional references) |
| Antonym: figurative (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Imagination | General meaning, broad meaning, substantial meaning, colloquial meaning, literal meaning, plain meaning, simple meaning, natural meaning, unstrained meaning, true; (exact) meaning, honest; meaning, prima facie; (manifest) meaning; letter of the law. |
Declaratory; intelligible; literal; synonymous; tantamount; (equivalent); implied; (latent); explicit. | |
Imitation | Paraphrastic; literal; imitative; secondhand; imitable; aping, apish, mimicking. |
Interpretation | Translation; rendering, rendition; redition; literal translation, free translation; key; secret; clew; (indication); clavis, crib, pony, trot. |
Polyglot; literal; paraphrastic, metaphrastic; | |
Letter | Adjective: literal; alphabetical, abecedarian; syllabic; majuscular, minuscular; uncial; (writing). |
Manifestation | Explicit, overt, patent, express; ostensible; open, open as day; naked, bare, literal, downright, undisguised, exoteric. |
Observance | Adjective: observant, faithful, true, loyal; honorable; true as the dial to the sun, true as the needle to the pole; punctual, punctilious; literal; (exact); as good as one's word. |
Truth | Exact, accurate, definite, precise, well-defined, just, just so, so; strict, severe; close; (similar); literal; rigid, rigorous; scrupulous; (conscientious); religiously exact, punctual, mathematical, scientific; faithful, constant, unerring; curious, particular, nice, delicate, fine; clean-cut, clear-cut. |
Word | Adjective: verbal, literal; nominal. conjugate, paronymous; derivative. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Well, there isn't a literal connection, Dude (The Big Lebowski; writing credit: Ethan Coen; Joel Coen) | |
Lyrics | It's all political, if my music is literal and I'm a criminal, (Sing For The Moment; performing artist: EMINEM) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The controversy raises questions concerning the literal existence of the disorder, whether it can be reliably diagnosed, and, if treated, what interventions are the most effective. (references) | |
Economic History | Costa Rica | Investors of all nationalities are subject to procedural and bureaucratic requirements that can be cumbersome and subject to literal interpretation. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | NOVEL, n. A short story padded. A species of composition bearing the same relation to literature that the panorama bears to art. As it is too long to be read at a sitting the impressions made by its successive parts are successively effaced, as in the panorama. Unity, totality of effect, is impossible; for besides the few pages last read all that is carried in mind is the mere plot of what has gone before. To the romance the novel is what photography is to painting. Its distinguishing principle, probability, corresponds to the literal actuality of the photograph and puts it distinctly into the category of reporting; whereas the free wing of the romancer enables him to mount to such altitudes of imagination as he may be fitted to attain; and the first three essentials of the literary art are imagination, imagination and imagination. The art of writing novels, such as it was, is long dead everywhere except in Russia, where it is new. Peace to its ashes -- some of which have a large sale. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
James Dobson | Well, I believe that, again, rather literal interpretation of scripture, I don't have any basis for what I believe, other than the inspired scriptures. And I believe that, not just by what you do, but by dying without forgiveness. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Literal" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 96.62% of the time. "Literal" is used about 414 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 96.62% | 400 | 13,972 |
| Noun (singular) | 3.38% | 14 | 93,893 |
| Total | 100.00% | 414 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "literal": in a literal sense ♦ in the literal sense ♦ interpreted parameter literal ♦ Literal contract ♦ Literal equation ♦ literal error ♦ literal interpretation ♦ literal translation. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "literal": literal-minded. | |
Ending with "literal": non-literal. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "literal"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shkronjar, i saktë (accurate, clean-cut, clear-cut, close, correct, definite, exact, explicit, express, just, neat, painstaking, Pat, pithy, precise, pronounced, pure, right, strict, stringent, true, unexceptional, veracious), i fjalëpërfjalshëm, i drejtpërdrejtë (direct, first hand, flush, immediate, live, outright, play-by-play, plump, point blank), gabim shtypi (corrigendum, erratum, misprint). (various references) | |
Arabic | موضوعي (documentary, dry, impartial, nonpartisan, objective, objectivist, outer, thematic, topical), واقعي (actual, concrete, de facto, down to earth, factual, hard, hardheaded, naturalistic, pragmatic, pragmatist, prose, real, realistic, sober, tangible, true, virtual), حرفي (craftsman, handicraft, professional, textual, verbal, verbatim), أحرفي, بالحرف الواحد. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | точен (accurate, careful, correct, exact, express, faithful, just, minute, narrow, near, perfect, pinpoint, precise, precision, proper, punctual, refined, right, rigorous, scientific, sensitive, straight, strict, true, unerring, veracious, well-directed), буквен, буквален (diplomatic, near, textual, verbal, word), без въображение (purblind, unimaginative), прозаичен (matter of fact, pedestrian, prosaic, prose, prosy, unimaginative, unromantic, workaday), печатна грешка (corrigendum, erratum, misprint, typo), педантичен (academic, academical, bookish, donnish, finical, mandarin, niminy-piminy, pedantic, pettifogging, precise, priggish, punctilious, punctual, scholastic, starchy, stuffy), дословен (verbal, verbatim). (various references) | |
Chinese | 逐字 (Verbatim). (various references) | |
Czech | přesný (accurate, clean-cut, clear-cut, correct, definite, exact, faithful, just, nice, precise, punctual, right, specific, strict, subtle, true, truthful), doslovný (verbal, verbatim). (various references) | |
Danish | litteral (figurative constant). (various references) | |
Dutch | literal (figurative constant), literaal (figurative constant), lettersymbool (figurative constant), letterlijk, letterlijk (to the letter), letterlýk (literally, to the letter), woordelijk (verbatim, word-for-word), woordelijk (verbatim), woordelýk (verbatim, word-for-word), benoemde grootheid (figurative constant). (various references) | |
Esperanto | laŭvorta. (various references) | |
Farsi | معنی اصلی , لفظی (Textual, Verbal), واقعی (Actual, Essential, Genuine, Lifelike, Real, Right, Sterling, True, Unfeigned, Veracious, Veritable, Very, Virtual), حرفی (Lexical), تحت اللفظی (Verbal, Verbatim), دقیق (Accurate, Astringent, Astute, Exquisite, Particular, Precise, Precision, Punctilious, Punctual, Scholastic, Scrutinizer, Set, Sound, Stringent, Subtle, Tender, Tenuous, Watchful, Wistful). (various references) | |
Finnish | literaali (figurative constant), sanatarkka, sananmukainen, merkkivakio (figurative constant). (various references) | |
French | littéral. (various references) | |
German | wörtlich (direct, literally, textual, verbal, verbally, verbatim, word for word, word-for-word), Buchstabensymbol, buchstäblich (literally, litterally, to the letter). (various references) | |
Greek | κυριολεκτικόσ, κυριολεκτικός, κατά γράμμα (literally, literatim), λεκτική σταθερά (figurative constant), λεκτική παράσταση (figurative constant). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szó szerinti (construe, verbal, verbatim). (various references) | |
Indonesian | harfiah. (various references) | |
Italian | letterale (textual). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | リチウ 爆弾 (car with 1000cc engine, lip, lip cream, lip service, lipreading, lipstick, literacy, literary, literature, lithium bomb, lithograph, Lithuania, litmus, litre, redisplay, reduce, rich, ridge, ripple, rocking motion, small-scale finance). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | リテラル . (various references) | |
Korean | 문자. (various references) | |
Manx | lettyroil (lettered), fockle son fockle (verbally), fockle er fockle (letter perfect, verbally). (various references) | |
Norwegian | ordrett, bokstavelig. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | iterallay.(various references) | |
Polish | dosłownie (verbatim, word-for-word). (various references) | |
Portuguese | literal (textual, verbal, verbatim). (various references) | |
Romanian | literal (verbal, verbally, verbatim), sec (bald, barren, cold, dried up, drily, dry, dull, empty, glacial, harshly, hollow, stupid, useless), precis (accurate, accurately, certain, clean-cut, clockwork, dead, decided, decisive, definite, definitely, distinct, due, even, exact, exactly, flat, just, narrow, positive, precise, regular, sharp, sound, specifically, straight, strict, truly, unambiguous), greşealã micã de tipar, de literã, cuvânt cu cuvânt (literally, verbal, verbally, word for word). (various references) | |
Russian | буквальный. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | doslovan (verbal, verbatim), bukvalan, štamparska greška (corrigendum, erratum, misprint). (various references) | |
Spanish | literal (verbatim). (various references) | |
Swedish | ordagrann (verbal, verbatim, verbatism, word-perfect), bokstavlig. (various references) | |
Thai | ตามที่เป็นจริง, ตามตัวอักษร. (various references) | |
Turkish | tam (absolute, accomplished, according to cocker, accurate, all out, at the time, bang, bang on, blank, clear, complete, consummate, correct, dead, desperately, downright, due, engrained, entire, even, exact, exactly, factual, full, full complement, fully, holo-, implicit, ingrained, intact, integral, intimate, just, mathematical, on time, out and out, outright, overall, perfect, plenary, Plumb, plunk, precise, precisely, prize, prompt, proper, punctual, rank, right, rightdown, root and branch, round, sharp, sheer, simple, slap bang, slick, solid, spot-on, Square, stark, straight, strict, the very, thorough, thoroughgoing, to a t, true, trueborn, unalloyed, unambiguous, unmitigated, unredeemed, unreserved, utter, very, whole), kelimesi kelimesine (literatim, textual, verbal, verbally, verbatim, with fidelity, word for word), gerçekçi (down to earth, exact, hard-headed, matter of fact, practical, realist, realistic), gerçek (actual, actualities, authentic, bona fide, dinkum, earnest, exact, fact, factual, for real, genuine, honest-to-god, honest-to-goodness, intrinsic, low down, lowdown, proper, pucka, pukka, real, reality, right, rightful, sincere, sooth, sterling, straight out, substantial, tangible, the real, the true, troth, true, truth, truthful, unfeigned, veracious, veracity, veritable, Verity, very, virtual), basım (issue), aslına uygun (letter-perfect), abartısız (cool). (various references) | |
Turkmen | harma-harp (verbal). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | ітерний, буквений, буквальний (matter of fact, verbal), друкарська помилка (corrigendum, misprint). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | theo nghĩa đen tầm thường, ph m tục thật, đúng như vậy (absolutely). (various references) | |
Welsh | llythrennol. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | litera, subtilior, subtilis. (various references) |
| Late Latin | 300-700 | literalis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "literal": literalism, literalisms, literalist, literalistic, literalists, literalities, literality, literalization, literalizations, literalize, literalized, literalizes, literalizing, literally, literalness, literalnesses, literals. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "literal": nonliteral, overliteral, triliteral. (additional references) | |
Words containing "literal": triliteralism, triliteralisms, triliterals. (additional references) | |
| |
"Literal" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: kleetra, latera, laterial, laterral, Latirel, latteral, Lierop, likeaaa, litera, literall, literaly, literas, literat, literay, Litoria, litra, littera, litteraly, litterfall, Lituya, lteral, luteal, lutreola, Lutterel, Lutterell. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "literal" (pronounced li"terul) |
| 6 | l i" t er u l | littoral. |
| 4 | -t er u l | bilateral, collateral, doctoral, electoral, guttural, lateral, multilateral, pastoral, pectoral, postdoctoral, sectoral, trilateral, unilateral. |
| 3 | -er u l | admiral, agricultural, architectural, behavioral, Corporal, countercultural, cultural, doggerel, ephemeral, federal, femoral, funeral, Gen, general, horticultural, humoral, inaugural, structural, supernatural, temporal, intercultural, liberal, mackerel, mayoral, mineral, multicultural, natural, neoliberal, nomenclatural, nonagricultural, numeral, peripheral, pickerel, prefectural, procedural, scriptural, sculptural, unnatural, visceral. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: tallier. | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-i-l-l-r-t" | |
-1 letter: retail, retial, rillet, tailer, taille, taller, telial, tiller. | |
-2 letters: alert, alter, ariel, artel, ileal, iller, irate, later, liter, litre, ratel, relit, retia, rille, taler, telia, terai, tiler, trail, trial, trill. | |
-3 letters: airt, alit, aril, earl, ilea, lair, lari, late, lati, leal, lear, liar, lier, lilt, lira, lire, lite, rail, rale, rate, real, rial. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-i-l-l-r-t" | |
+1 letter: arillate, laetrile, literals, tailleur, talliers. | |
+2 letters: allergist, allethrin, argillite, artillery, bilateral, filtrable, flatliner, installer, laetriles, literally, reinstall, reliantly, stairwell, tailleurs, tellurian, tillerman, trailless, treadmill, treillage. | |
+3 letters: allegorist, allergists, allethrins, alleviator, alliterate, allometric, allosteric, argillites, arterially, carnallite, citronella, electrical, erotically, fibrillate, filterable, flatliners, galleryite, heliolatry, illiteracy, illiterate, illustrate, inertially, installers, integrally, interlocal, internally, inthralled, lateraling, lateralize, legislator, lenticular, liberalist, liberality, literalism, literalist, literality, literalize, literarily, literately, materially, metrically, millstream, multilayer, nonliteral, orientally, palletizer, reinstalls, relational, relatively, saltarelli, sclerotial, stairwells, sterically, tenurially, terminally, tramelling, travelling, treadmills, treillages, trilateral, triliteral, tripletail, unilateral, vertically, victualler, vorticella. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Quotations: Spoken 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Abbreviations 14. Acronyms 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
