literal-minded

[lit-er-uhl-mahyn-did]

adjective

1. unimaginative; prosaic; matter-of-fact.

Word History and Origins

Origin of literal-minded¹

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

Murphy’s Pauline, a vacuous blonde too literal-minded for metaphor, and Story’s Alan, a scenery-chewer who hogs the spotlight, are a perfect match.

From Los Angeles Times

This will strike the literal-minded as illogical, but I think Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores, a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, had a righteous point when he declared at a news conference with Southern California mayors that immigrants being rounded up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in communities like his “are Americans, whether they have a document or they don’t.”

From Los Angeles Times

"Sensitivity to language is important and necessary, but we've become too literal-minded".

From BBC

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

“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