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Glite Dictionary
literalistic

literalistic

1 8.4
Reading words exactly as they are and not looking for a deeper meaning
  • adjective
  • /ˌlɪtərəˈlɪstɪk/
translation icon : literalista
  • Students who interpret texts in a strictly literalistic manner often miss out on the deeper meaning intended by the author.

No, no, no, that is a wooden overly literalistic taking of what Jesus said.

Examples

  • I can at least see where evangelical complementarians are "coming from," so to speak, because of their literalistic approach to hermeneutics (which is never really consistently literalistic).

    Blog text (4)

  • YouTube is taking an extremely superficial and literalistic view of what is "hate speech."

    Blog text (4)

  • No, no, no, that is a wooden overly literalistic taking of what Jesus said.

    Jack Neel

  • "Deanna," she said, "Don't be so literalistic."

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Now that's not always possible and even the most like literalistic translation is going to have to deviate from that at some point.

  • Mythology in our literalistic time is denigrated because it is not reducible to scientific fact.

    Blog text (18)

  • Strongly held dualistic and even literalistic concepts will shift; we are going to be strongly encouraged to compassionately interrelate with all phenomena.

    Academic text (2001)

  • I can at least see where evangelical complementarians are "coming from," so to speak, because of their literalistic approach to hermeneutics (which is never really consistently literalistic).

    Blog text (4)

  • It is perfectly constitutional, from a literalistic perspective, so long as the drugs in question move across state lines or national borders (strict-literal 'interstate commerce' -- the power to regulate includes the power to prohibit), or the involvement is restricted to sending money to states for use in state-level enforcement.

    Blog text (4)

  • His literalistic approach to poetry makes it difficult for him to appreciate metaphor and symbolism.

Synonyms

literal
vsliteralistic
120 3.5

Exactly true without exaggeration or metaphor

interprets texts strictly avoiding any deeper or figurative meaning

Antonyms

abstract
35 7.1

Art that uses shapes and colours instead of real objects

figurative
9 6.4

Using words in a non-literal way to create images

How Literal

literalistic
1 8.4
literal
120 3.5
figurative
9 6.4

Surface Forms

literalistic positive

Morphology

literalistic = literal (transparent) = literal + istic

Formed by the adjective 'literal' plus the adjectival suffix '-istic', yielding a meaning directly related to being strictly literal.

Etymology

Literalistic comes from literal, which comes from the Latin litera meaning 'letter'. So to be literalistic is to read things 'by the letter', focusing on the exact words and not on the deeper meaning.