Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

literality

American  
[lit-uh-ral-i-tee] / ˌlɪt əˈræl ɪ ti /

noun

  • literalities
    plural
  1. the quality or state of being literal; literalness.

  2. a literal interpretation.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of literality

First recorded in 1640–50; literal + -ity

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.

See Examples For:

If her description of “the Factory” strikes a superficial note, we can ascribe its stripped-down literality to Natsuki’s automaton identity.

From New York Times Oct. 6, 2020

The Danny Boyle–directed fantasia on British history flirted with campiness in its intense chronological literality and sheer theatrical bulk, but style aside, the pageant of excess was prime territory for true camp.

From Slate Apr. 4, 2013

Yet there have been epochs in the history of the Christian, and even of the Protestant Church, when its features have been reproduced with too faithful literality.

From The Preacher and His Models The Yale Lectures on Preaching 1891 by James Stalker

When the vision faded he took refuge in symbolism or literality.

From Pot-Boilers by Clive Bell

One emaciated creature, in the strictest literality worn to the bone, lay stretched on his back, looking so like death that I asked one of the doctors if he were not dying, or dead? 

From The Uncommercial Traveller by Charles Dickens

One her coarse sense by metaphors expounds, And one in literalities abounds; In mood and figure these keep up the din: Words multiply, and every word tells in.

From The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 by Charles Lamb

We can gather clear and definite ideas from the significant hieroglyphics of symbolical language, but the literalities of history written in advance would be worse to decipher than the arrow-headed inscriptions of Nineveh.

From Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity by Robert Patterson

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 12,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training