Polite vs Literal - What's the difference?
polite | literal |
Well-mannered, civilized.
* (Alexander Pope)
* , chapter=4
, title= (obsolete) Smooth, polished, burnished.
* (Isaac Newton)
(obsolete) To polish; to refine; to render polite.
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 polite and literal
is that polite is well-mannered, civilized 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 verb polite
is to polish; to refine; to render polite.As a noun literal is
a value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of a computer program.polite
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- He marries, bows at court, and grows polite .
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite .}}
- rays of light falling on a polite surface
Usage notes
* The one-word comparative form (politer) and superlative form (politest) exist, but are less common than their two-word counterparts (term) and (term).Synonyms
* See alsoAntonyms
* impolite * rudeDerived terms
* over-polite * politeness * polite societyVerb
(polit)- (Ray)
References
*External links
* *Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----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.