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Literal - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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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]
(noun)
1: a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical
failures of some kind [syn: misprint, erratum, typographical
error, typo, literal error]
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Literal : \Lit"er*al\, n.
Literal meaning. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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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.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Literal :
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)
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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