Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Literal"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Literal \Lit"er*al\, n.
Literal meaning. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Literal \Lit"er*al\, a. [F. lit['e]ral, litt['e]ral, L.
litteralis, literalis, fr. littera, litera, a letter. See
{Letter}.]
1. According to the letter or verbal expression; real; not
figurative or metaphorical; as, the literal meaning of a
phrase.
It hath but one simple literal sense whose light the
owls can not abide. --Tyndale.
2. Following the letter or exact words; not free.
A middle course between the rigor of literal
translations and the liberty of paraphrasts.
--Hooker.
3. Consisting of, or expressed by, letters.
The literal notation of numbers was known to
Europeans before the ciphers. --Johnson.
4. Giving a strict or literal construction; unimaginative;
matter-of fast; -- applied to persons.
{Literal contract} (Law), contract of which the whole
evidence is given in writing. --Bouvier.
{Literal equation} (Math.), an equation in which known
quantities are expressed either wholly or in part by means
of letters; -- distinguished from a numerical equation.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
literal
adj 1: 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"
[syn: {actual}, {genuine}, {real}]
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" [ant: {figurative}]
4: lacking stylistic embellishment; "a literal description";
"wrote good but plain prose"; "a plain unadorned account
of the coronation"; "a forthright unembellished style"
[syn: {plain}, {unembellished}]
5: of the clearest kind; usually used for emphasis; "it's the
literal truth"; "a matter of investment, pure and simple"
[syn: {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" [syn: {word-for-word}]
n : a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical
failures of some kind [syn: {misprint}, {erratum}, {typographical
error}, {typo}, {literal error}]
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