literary
Americanadjective
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pertaining to or of the nature of books and writings, especially those classed as literature.
literary history.
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pertaining to authorship.
literary style.
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versed in or acquainted with literature; well-read.
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engaged in or having the profession of literature or writing.
a literary man.
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characterized by an excessive or affected display of learning; stilted; pedantic.
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preferring books to actual experience; bookish.
adjective
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of, relating to, concerned with, or characteristic of literature or scholarly writing
a literary discussion
a literary style
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versed in or knowledgeable about literature
a literary man
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(of a word) formal; not colloquial
Usage
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.
Other Word Forms
- literarily adverb
- literariness noun
- nonliterarily adverb
- nonliterarilyness noun
- nonliterariness noun
- nonliterary adjective
- overliterarily adverb
- overliterariness noun
- overliterary adjective
- preliterary adjective
- pseudoliterary adjective
- quasi-literary adjective
- unliterary adjective
Etymology
Origin of literary
1640–50; < Latin līterārius, litterārius of reading and writing. See letter 1, -ary
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.
She had great confidence in her own literary voice, though.
From Los Angeles Times
And at Portobello town hall Garbage's Shirley Manson will be among a series of literary guests in conversation at Muckle Be The Light.
From BBC
A revolutionary literary, theatrical and artistic movement, Surrealism—with Sigmund Freud as muse—liberated and mined dreams, fantasies, chance, childlike spontaneity and the unconscious.
At a time when journalism’s literary roots seem to be fading and the culture of book-reading sinks out of view, this aspect of Podhoretz, who died Dec. 16 at 95, deserves a moment of attention.
Tom is 55, and it’s worth comparing him to similar literary characters—other protagonists of what you might call the male-midlife-crisis novel.
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.
