Explore: Literal Sense

identifying such a distinction is no longer used. Literal usage confers meaning to words, in the sense of the meaning words have by themselves, for example

Biblical literalism or biblicism is a term used differently by different authors concerning biblical interpretation. The term can refer to the historical-grammatical

word is usually considered highly offensive, it is rarely used in the literal sense of one who engages in sexual activity with another person's mother,

single expression to contain a spiritual sense. However, people of Jesus’ time only understood the natural literal level of his teaching. According to Swedenborg

adverb, noun, and interjection. Although the word itself is used in its literal sense to refer to sexual intercourse, its most common usage is figurative—to

smelling and, with strong enough brine, turns its flesh reddish. In this literal sense, as a strongly cured kipper, the term can be dated to the late 13th

largely or exclusively carries a figurative or non-literal meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiomatic

needed] sense, which includes the allegorical sense, the moral (or tropological) sense, and the anagogical sense, as opposed to the literal sense. It is

interpretations of her work are rooted in its literal sense: "...[F]or O'Connor, the literal in some sense already 'contains' the figurative. Far from being

musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while more figuratively