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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.
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" Quotes from Famous Books



... I want: this would save me. Who did this for him? Jesus Christ, certainly; and it must be written in the New Testament." I tried to jump up and reach my Bible, but was overpowered by the emotion of my mind. I clasped my hands over my eyes, and then the blessed effects of having even a literal knowledge of scripture were apparent. Memory brought before me, as the Holy Spirit directed it, not here and there a detached text, but whole chapters, as they had long been committed to its safe but hitherto unprofitable keeping. The veil was removed from my heart, ...
— Personal Recollections • Charlotte Elizabeth

... was published by two Players, Heming and Condell, in 1623, seven years after his decease. They declare that all the other editions were stolen and surreptitious, and affirm theirs to be purged from the errors of the former. This is true as to the literal errors, and no other; for in all respects else it is far worse ...
— Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare • D. Nichol Smith

... lips opened, when they did open, on dark, unfrequent teeth. These observations Swan made as he moved forward to speak to her; for there was no special expressiveness or animation to relieve the literal stamp of ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 65, March, 1863 • Various

... metamorphosed legs, so that one crab has more legs and fewer jaws than another, they are far from meaning that the jaws, either during the life of the individual crab or of its progenitors, were really legs. By our theory this term assumes its literal meaning{460}; and this wonderful fact of the complex jaws of an animal retaining numerous characters, which they would probably have retained if they had really been metamorphosed during many successive generations from true legs, ...
— The Foundations of the Origin of Species - Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844 • Charles Darwin

... him in thinking that some of them might be advantageously adapted to the modern theatre; and I am more confirmed in this opinion from having witnessed at the Odeon in Paris, some years since, a dramatic piece, entitled "Les Nuees d'Aristophane," which had a great run there. It was not a literal translation from the Greek author, but a kind of melange, drawn from the Clouds and Plutus together. The characters of Socrates and his equestrian son were very well performed; but the scenic accessories I considered very meagre, particularly the choral part, which must have ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851 • Various


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