literal-minded
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of literal-minded
First recorded in 1865–70
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This more-is-more approach also means that Ms. Poswa can come off as too literal-minded in several sections, repeating as she does the same idea over and over.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
As Elizabeth Yuko wrote for the History Channel last year, it was the rise of Charismatic Christianity — and televangelists like Billy Graham — who helped bring the fiery and literal-minded approach to contemporary demon-busting.
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2023
“I’m too literal-minded to take anybody’s word for anything. I was a complete beginner in the land of salt.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2022
So - in a literal-minded move - she walked on stage to Moving On Up, by 1990s hitmakers M People.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2022
The Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution has buried records of Indian beliefs, ceremonies, mythology, and other folklore in hundreds of tomes; laborious, literal-minded scholars of other institutions have been as assiduous.
From Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest, with a Few Observations by Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
