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.

Also, the inventive, nonliteral staging by director Zack Winokur, choreographer Pam Tanowitz, co-set designers Mimi Lien and Jack Forman and lighting designer John Torres is astonishing to look at but not always intelligible.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 22, 2025

When the photos of Parker and Corbett first landed last month, many fans brushed them off, figuring Aidan probably shows up in a dream sequence, flashback or other nonliteral context.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2023

If you’re going to appreciate “The Young Pope,” it will probably be on the nonliteral level of spectacle.

From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2017

They began to be used in nonliteral ways, and so became not just words that shocked and offended but words with which people could swear.

From Salon • May 11, 2013

A metaphor suggests comparison of the phenomenon with another by the nonliteral application of a word.

From Humanistic Nursing by Paterson, Josephine G.