Accurate vs Literal - What's the difference?
accurate | literal |
In exact or careful conformity to truth; the result of care or pains; free from failure, error, or defect; exact; as, an accurate'' calculator; an ''accurate'' measure; ''accurate expression, knowledge, etc.
*
Deviating only slightly or within acceptable limits.
(obsolete) Precisely fixed; executed with care; careful.
* Bacon
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]
As adjectives the difference between accurate and literal
is that accurate is in exact or careful conformity to truth; the result of care or pains; free from failure, error, or defect; exact; as, an accurate'' calculator; an ''accurate'' measure; ''accurate expression, knowledge, etc while literal is exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical.As a noun literal is
(programming) a value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program.accurate
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- For more than 90% of the figures (mostly drawn during 1976-1990), either a scale, or the given magnification, will allow the user to derive accurate measurements, even when these are lacking in the diagnosis.
- Those conceive the celestial bodies have more accurate influences upon these things below.
Usage notes
* We speak of a thing as correct' with reference to some rule or standard of comparison; as, a '''correct''' account, a '''correct''' likeness, a man of ' correct deportment. * We speak of a thing as accurate' with reference to the care bestowed upon its execution, and the increased correctness to be expected therefrom; as, an '''accurate''' statement, an ' accurate detail of particulars. * We speak of a thing as exact' with reference to that perfected state of a thing in which there is no defect and no redundancy; as, an '''exact''' coincidence, the '''exact''' truth, an ' exact likeness. * We speak of a thing as precise' when we think of it as strictly conformed to some rule or model, as if ''cut down'' thereto; as a '''precise''' conformity instructions; '''precisely''' right; he was very ' precise in giving his directions.Synonyms
* correct * exact * just * nice * particularAntonyms
* inaccurateDerived terms
* accuracy * accuratelyAnagrams
* ----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.