Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state of being literal.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality or state of being literal; literal import.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The property of being
literal .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun adhereing to the concrete construal of something
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He would often gently deride a certain American literalness that I do possess – a need to ask questions all the damn time, and analyse situations a little too much.
A Special Relationship Douglas Kennedy 2003
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He would often gently deride a certain American literalness that I do possess – a need to ask questions all the damn time, and analyse situations a little too much.
A Special Relationship Douglas Kennedy 2003
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His stated purpose is to emphasize the relation of words to their objects, that is, the literalness of the "real language of men."
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Biblical "literalness" consists in interpreting the Bible contextually, and straightforwardly where the context allows.
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But literalness gave rise to some fine ideas, like casting Gabriel Lautaro Osuna, a flamenco singer, as Mario's father.
Domingo's tenor lifts respectable, but too literal, 'Il Postino' by Daniel Catán Anne Midgette 2010
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YOu really need help — this is literalness to a pathological level.
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The life and sayings of Johnson were so replete with ironies that perhaps it is no surprise to find literalness exacting its effect over the course of time.
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The life and sayings of Johnson were so replete with ironies that perhaps it is no surprise to find literalness exacting its effect over the course of time.
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Some of his devotees were depressed by the literalness of the subject matter, which is a quasi-autobiographical account of being 13 years old and an inmate in a Japanese internment camp in Shanghai.
The Catastrophist 2010
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Some of his devotees were depressed by the literalness of the subject matter, which is a quasi-autobiographical account of being 13 years old and an inmate in a Japanese internment camp in Shanghai.
The Catastrophist 2010
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