Figurative vs Figural - What's the difference?
figurative | figural |
Metaphorical or tropical, as opposed to literal; using figures; as of the use of "cats and dogs" in the phrase "It's raining cats and dogs".
* '>citation
Metaphorically so called
With many figures of speech
Emblematic; representative
* Hooker
* J. A. Symonds
Representing by means of a figure; emblematic.
* 2007 , John Burrow, A History of Histories , Penguin 2009, p. 185:
Figurative, not literal.
(mathematics, obsolete) Of numbers, describing a geometrical figure.
(obsolete) Pertaining to a figure, shape.
(rare) Pertaining to (human) figures.
* 2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin 2010, p. 262-3:
(music) Figurate.
----
As adjectives the difference between figurative and figural
is that figurative is metaphorical or tropical, as opposed to literal; using figures; as of the use of "cats and dogs" in the phrase "It's raining cats and dogs" while figural is representing by means of a figure; emblematic.figurative
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- This, they will say, was figurative , and served, by God's appointment, but for a time, to shadow out the true glory of a more divine sanctity.
- They belonged to a nation dedicated to the figurative arts, and they wrote for a public familiar with painted form.
Usage notes
* Said of language, expression, etc.Antonyms
* literalDerived terms
* figurativeness * figurativelyExternal links
* * ----figural
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- The counterparts, in the Christian era, to the figural anticipation of Christ in the Old Testament were the deliverer monarchs and leaders of later times [...].
- Some of the Umayyads found themselves charmed by the cultures which they had conquered, so that archaeologists in Palestine and Syria have revealed an astonishing flourishing of Christian-style figural art under their rule.