literary work

3 4.8

A piece of creative writing like a novel, poem, or play

noun
/ˈlɪtəˌrɛri wɜrk/

: obra literaria

She published her first literary work when she was only fifteen years old.
many literary works
literary work of art

His son seems to have inherited most of his literary works.

Examples

So these literary works, they exhibit the case for the abolition of slavery.
Use modern African literary works to provide reliable historical information.

Academic text (1996)
There was a major fight to have computer programs considered to be literary works.

Academic text (1999)
But simply including many languages in a literary work does not represent them.

Academic text (1996)
Computer programs are protected as literary works in the TRIPS Agreement today.

Academic text (1999)
Subsequent literary works featured new approaches to American silent movies from this group.

Academic text (2017)
Tar Baby, like all classic literary works, resists an easy and simple interpretation.

Academic text (1996)
Although eighteenth-century patterns continued, the variety of literary works spawned by the nineteenth century is remarkable.

Academic text (1992)
My initial examination of several highly recommended multicultural literary works for K-12 and accompanying writing assignments raises a number of concerns.

Academic text (1993)
As for traditional literary criticism, Morrison cites a handful of literary works whose racial themes, she charges, have been suppressed.

Academic text (1994)

Synonyms

literary composition

vsliterary work

5.2

A piece of creative writing that shows thoughts and feelings, like a novel or poem

has the same meaning but gives plays rather than essays as typical examples

How Literary

masterpiece

156 3.8

classic

Literature

268 4.8

literary work

3 4.8

piece

∞ 3.0

text

355 1.0

Surface Forms

literary work singular

literary works plural

Morphology

literary + work

The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining 'literary' (relating to literature) with 'work' (a product or piece of creation), yielding a work belonging to literature. This straightforward modifier+noun composition is cross-linguistically common and follows standard semantic composition, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will understand the MWE.

Etymology

The phrase literary work gives the image of a writer making a piece of art from words. The word literary points to 'literature' or 'creative writing' and work is something made, so it means 'a creative piece of writing'.