literal

  • (s) 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
    actual, genuine, real,
  • (s) without interpretation or embellishment
    • a literal depiction of the scene before him
  • (a) limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text
    • a literal translation
  • (s) avoiding embellishment or exaggeration (used for emphasis)
    • it's the literal truth

Nouns

Synonyms

erratum literal error misprint typo typographical error actual genuine real

Antonyms

figurative nonliteral

See also

exact unrhetorical

Words of close approximity

literal error literal interpretation literalise literalism literalize literally literalness