Definition of Literal

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Literal

According to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical; as, the literal meaning of a phrase.

Following the letter or exact words; not free.

Consisting of, or expressed by, letters.

Giving a strict or literal construction; unimaginative; matter-of fast; -- applied to persons.

Literal meaning.

Related Definitions:

According, Applied, As, By, Consisting, Construction, Exact, Expressed, Expression, Fast, Figurative, Following, Free, Giving, Letter, Literal, Meaning, Metaphorical, Not, Of, Or, Phrase, Real, Strict, The, To, Verbal

Literal Quotations

I once saw a forklift lift a crate of forks. And it was way to literal for me.
Mitch Hedberg

The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.
Karl Marx

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.
Voltaire

The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.
Jacques Yves Cousteau

Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems with guns. It's truly unbelievable.
Toni Morrison

Not only is the self entwined in society; it owes society its existence in the most literal sense.
Theodor Adorno

Enthusiasm is the energy and force that builds literal momentum of the human soul and mind.
Bryant H. McGill

This was nostalgia in the literal Greek sense: the pain of not being able to return to one's home and family.
John Thorn

Language operates between literal and metaphorical signification.
Robert Smithson

Part of the advantage, and part of the result of trying to be a producer and director, are the practical things, you find. It's so advantageous to go to a place that you already have a feel for, a literal and spiritual familiarity.
Campbell Scott

Literal Translations

literal in Dutch is woordelijk, letterlijk
literal in French is textuel
literal in Italian is letteralmente, letterale
literal in Norwegian is ordrett, bokstavelig
literal in Spanish is literal
literal in Swedish is ordagrann, ordagrann, bokstavlig

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