Literal vs Meaning - What's the difference?
literal | meaning |
Exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical.
* Hooker
Following the letter or exact words; not free; not taking liberties.
(uncommon) Consisting of, or expressed by, letters.
* Johnson
(of a person) Giving a strict or literal construction; unimaginative; matter-of-fact.
(programming) A value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program.
(logic) A propositional variable or the negation of a propositional variable.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolution_%28logic%29]
The symbolic value of something.
*
*:Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ ("I never) understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."
The significance of a thing.
:
(lb) The objects or concept that a word or phrase denotes, or that which a sentence says.
(lb) Intention.
*(rfdate) (Sir Walter Raleigh):
*:It was their meaning to take what they needed by stronghand.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= Having a (specified) intention.
Expressing some intention or significance; meaningful.
*1839 , (Edgar Allan Poe), ‘William Wilson’:
*:I might, to-day, have been a better, and thus a happier man, had I less frequently rejected the counsels embodied in those meaning whispers which I then but too cordially hated and too bitterly despised.
As adjectives the difference between literal and meaning
is that literal is exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical while meaning is having a (specified) intention.As nouns the difference between literal and meaning
is that literal is (programming) a value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program while meaning is the symbolic value of something.As a verb meaning is
.literal
Alternative forms
* litteral (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- The literal translation is “hands full of bananas” but it means empty-handed.
- a middle course between the rigour of literal translation and the liberty of paraphrasts
- A literal reading of the law would prohibit it, but that is clearly not the intent.
- a literal equation
- The literal notation of numbers was known to Europeans before the ciphers.
Antonyms
* (exactly as stated) figurativeNoun
(en noun)See also
* constant * prime formulaExternal links
* *Anagrams
* ----meaning
English
(wikipedia meaning)Etymology 1
From (etyl) mening, menyng, equivalent to .Noun
(en noun)Synonyms
* sense, definitionHyponyms
* propositionDerived terms
* antimeaning * meaning of life * meaningful * meaningless * meaninglessly * meaninglessnessEtymology 2
From .Verb
(head)Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
The Adaptable Gas Turbine, passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}