literal

How to use literal in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for literal.

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Editorial note

But a literal copy and paste just doesn't happen.

Examples9

Definitions5

Parts of speech2

Quick take

a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind

Meaning at a glance

The clearest senses and uses of literal gathered in one view.

noun

a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind

adjective

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"

adjective

without interpretation or embellishment; "a literal depiction of the scene before him"

Definitions

Core meanings and parts of speech for literal.

noun

a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind

adjective

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"

adjective

without interpretation or embellishment; "a literal depiction of the scene before him"

adjective

limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text; "a literal translation"

adjective

avoiding embellishment or exaggeration (used for emphasis); "it's the literal truth"

Example sentences

But a literal copy and paste just doesn't happen.

I am "uncompromising" in the most literal sense of the word.

They can, literally, be killed with impunity … as long as the dash cam isn't running.

"It's quite indefensible to use a voting system that doesn't leave a literal paper trail.

It can have a literal meaning, constituting some tangible thing.

We expect straight and to-the-point prose, piddly word counts and a literal/predictable assortment of ideas.

If only people reading my comment had some sort of brain with which to interpret it instead of being doomed to apply only the exact literal meaning.

This is a remarkably good solution for dynamic languages.> Here's a strange thing: the one and only true value is the boolean literal boolean true.

This doesn't even look like the kind of standard hipster kickstarter page you'd see, it looks far more like quite literal spam you'd find on ebay auctions or something, crappy image tables, schizo bolded text..