literal

adj.

1. Being in accordance with, conforming to, or upholding the exact or primary meaning of a word or words.
2. Word for word; verbatim: a literal translation.
3. Avoiding exaggeration, metaphor, or embellishment; factual; prosaic: a literal description; a literal mind.
4. Consisting of, using, or expressed by letters: literal notation.
5. Conforming or limited to the simplest, nonfigurative, or most obvious meaning of a word or words.

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.]

literalness lit'er·al·ness n.

In programming, any data typed in by the programmer that remains unchanged when translated into machine language. Examples are a constant value used for calculation purposes as well as text messages displayed on screen. In the following lines of code, the literals are 1 and VALUE IS ONE.

     if x = 1
       print "the value is one"
     endif

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adjective

Employing the very same words as another: verbal, verbatim, word-for-word. See same/different/compare.

adj

Definition: word for word; exact, real
Antonyms: exaggerated, figurative, imaginative, loose, metaphorical

---

literal, confined to the simplest primary meaning of a word, statement, or text, as distinct from any figurative sense (see figure) which it may carry—whether ironic, allegorical, metaphoric, or symbolic. Thus the literal sense of a text is its most straightforward meaning. Literalism is a tendency to interpret texts according to their most obvious meaning, often disregarding their connotations as well as their figurative senses. A literal translation is one that tries as far as possible to transfer each element of a text from one language into the other, without allowance for differences of idiom between the two languages.

IN BRIEF: Based on the actual words in their usual meaning.

In the literal sense, it is impossible for it to rain cats and dogs.

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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - ordret, bogstavelig, prosaisk, nøjagtig, bogstav-
n. - trykfejl

idioms:

• literal error    trykfejl
• literal mistake    trykfejl

Nederlands (Dutch)
woordelijk, letterlijk, niet-numeriek, woordgetrouw, waarheidsgetrouw, prozaïsch, heus, drukfout

Français (French)
adj. - littéral, mot à mot, fidèle, sans imagination (péj), véritable, qui prend tout au pied de la lettre
n. - erreur typographique, coquille

idioms:

• literal error    erreur/faute littérale
• literal mistake    erreur/faute littérale

Deutsch (German)
n. - Druckfehler, Literal
adj. - wörtlich, buchstäblich, wahr, nüchtern

idioms:

• literal error    Druckfehler
• literal mistake    Druckfehler

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ορθογραφικό λάθος εντύπου
adj. - κυριολεκτικός, κατά λέξη, πιστός

idioms:

• literal error    τυπογραφικό λάθος
• literal mistake    τυπογραφικό λάθος

Italiano (Italian)
errore di stampa, letterale

idioms:

• literal error/mistake    errore di stampa

Português (Portuguese)
n. - literal (m) (f)
adj. - literal, prosaico

idioms:

• literal error/mistake    erro (m) literal

Русский (Russian)
буквенный, дословный, педантичный, настоящий

idioms:

• literal error/mistake    опечатка

Español (Spanish)
adj. - literal, prosaico, crudo
n. - errata, literal, prosaico

idioms:

• literal error    errata
• literal mistake    errata

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bokstavsfel, tryckfel
adj. - ordagrann, exakt, bokstavstrogen, slavisk, bokstavlig, egentlig, verklig, fullkomlig, formlig, prosaisk, fantasilös, bokstavs-

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
照字面的, 如实的, 不夸张的, 原义的, 逐字的, 印刷错误

idioms:

• literal error    排字错误, 印刷错误
• literal mistake    字面上的错误

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 照字面的, 如實的, 不誇張的, 原義的, 逐字的
n. - 印刷錯誤

idioms:

• literal error    排字錯誤, 印刷錯誤
• literal mistake    字面上的錯誤

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 문자의, 글자 그대로의, 상상력이 없는
n. - 오자, 오식

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 文字どおりの, 正確な, 字義にこだわる, 一語一語の, 文字の, そのままの, 平凡な, 文字通りの
n. - 誤字

idioms:

• literal error/mistake    文字のあやまり

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الحرفيه, التمسك بالمعنى الحرفي, الموضوعيه, الواقعيه, إلتزام الحقائق بأمانه (صفه) حرفي, بسيط, غير مزخرف, موضوعي, واقعي, ملتزم للحقائق بأمانه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מילולי, מילה במילה, מדוייק, של אותיות, פרוזאי, יבש, חסר דמיון, ממש, לא מופרז, לא מספרי (אלגברה), קרוי כך (מדוברת)‬
n. - ‮טעות דפוס‬

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