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7 dictionary results for: Literal
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
lit·er·al 
[lit-er-uhl] Pronunciation Key
—Related forms
[lit-er-uhl] Pronunciation Key –adjective
–noun
| 1. | in accordance with, involving, or being the primary or strict meaning of the word or words; not figurative or metaphorical: the literal meaning of a word. |
| 2. | following the words of the original very closely and exactly: a literal translation of Goethe. |
| 3. | true to fact; not exaggerated; actual or factual: a literal description of conditions. |
| 4. | being actually such, without exaggeration or inaccuracy: the literal extermination of a city. |
| 5. | (of persons) tending to construe words in the strict sense or in an unimaginative way; matter-of-fact; prosaic. |
| 6. | of or pertaining to the letters of the alphabet. |
| 7. | of the nature of letters. |
| 8. | expressed by letters. |
| 9. | affecting a letter or letters: a literal error. |
| 10. | a typographical error, esp. involving a single letter. |
—Related forms
lit·er·al·ness, noun
—Synonyms 3. truthful, exact, reliable.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
| lit·er·al
(lĭt'ər-əl) Pronunciation Key
adj.
n. Computer Science A letter or symbol that stands for itself as opposed to a feature, function, or entity associated with it in a programming language: $ can be a symbol that refers to the end of a line, but as a literal, it is a dollar sign. [Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin litterālis, of letters, from Latin littera, lītera, letter; see letter.] lit'er·al·ness n. |
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
literal
literal
1382, "taking words in their natural meaning" (originally in ref. to Scripture and opposed to mystical or allegorical), from O.Fr. literal, from L.L. lit(t)eralis "of or belonging to letters or writing," from L. lit(t)era "letter." Sense of "verbally exact" is attested from 1599. Literal-minded is attested from 1869. Literally is often used erroneously, even by writers like Dryden and Pope, to indicate "what follows must be taken in the strongest admissible sense" (1687), which is opposite to the word's real meaning.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
| literal | |
adjective | |
| 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] |
| 2. | without interpretation or embellishment; "a literal depiction of the scene before him" |
| 3. | limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text; "a literal translation" [ant: figurative] |
| 4. | avoiding embellishment or exaggeration (used for emphasis); "it's the literal truth" |
noun | |
| 1. | a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind [syn: misprint] |
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This
literal programming
A constant made available to a process, by inclusion in the executable text. Most modern systems do not allow texts to modify themselves during execution, so literals are indeed constant; their value is written at compile-time and is read-only at run time.
In contrast, values placed in variables or files and accessed by the process via a symbolic name, can be changed during execution. This may be an asset. For example, messages can be given in a choice of languages by placing the translation in a file.
Literals are used when such modification is not desired. The name of the file mentioned above (not its content), or a physical constant such as 3.14159, might be coded as a literal. Literals can be accessed quickly, a potential advantage of their use.
(1996-01-23)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Literal
Lit"er*al\, n. Literal meaning. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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