literary
[lit-uh-rer-ee]
- pertaining to or of the nature of books and writings, especially those classed as literature: literary history.
- pertaining to authorship: literary style.
- versed in or acquainted with literature; well-read.
- engaged in or having the profession of literature or writing: a literary man.
- characterized by an excessive or affected display of learning; stilted; pedantic.
- preferring books to actual experience; bookish.
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Origin of literary
Usage note
In this dictionary, the label Literary is assigned to an entry term or definition that is used rarely in contemporary speech or writing except to create a literary, poetic, or evocative effect.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for literary
Contemporary Examples
From this attitude he draws a singular comic and literary power.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim PresidentPierre Assouline
January 9, 2015
Lacey Noonan's A Gronking to Remember makes 50 Shades of Grey look like Madame Bovary in terms of its literary sophistication.
The goal is to create a literary anatomy of the last century—or, to be precise, from 1900 to 2014.
To reclaim it, he had to move beyond established conventions about how a literary career should be conducted.
A new book from Mallory Ortberg imagines what literary legends including King Lear and Jane Eyre would have texted.
Historical Examples
Some literary works of Mr. Gladstone have been already noticed.
The Grand Old ManRichard B. Cook
There was such a litter as always gathers around a literary man.
Biographical SketchesNathaniel Hawthorne
Sometimes a literary or historical picture creeps into the text.
De Libris: Prose and VerseAustin Dobson
Yet Gracie had supposed him to be literary in his tastes and pursuits.
Ester Ried Yet SpeakingIsabella Alden
Ostensibly they were a literary society; really they were diamond polishers.
Ester Ried Yet SpeakingIsabella Alden
literary
- of, relating to, concerned with, or characteristic of literature or scholarly writinga literary discussion; a literary style
- versed in or knowledgeable about literaturea literary man
- (of a word) formal; not colloquial
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin litterārius concerning reading and writing. See letter
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for literary
adj.
1640s, "pertaining to alphabet letters," from French littéraire, from Latin literarius/litterarius "belonging to letters or learning," from littera/litera "letter" (see letter (n.1)). Meaning "pertaining to literature" is attested from 1737.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper