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It maintains a consistent meaning regardless of the context, [3] with the intended meaning of a phrase corresponding exactly to the meaning of its individual words. [4] On the contrary, figurative use of language (a later offshoot being the term figure of speech) is the use of words or phrases with a meaning that does make literal sense but ...
Tropes (from Greek trepein, 'to turn') change the general meaning of words. An example of a trope is irony, which is the use of words to convey the opposite of their usual meaning ("For Brutus is an honorable man; / So are they all, all honorable men"). During the Renaissance, scholars meticulously enumerated and classified figures of speech.
Literally is an English adverb meaning "in a literal sense or manner" or an intensifier which strengthens the following statement. It has been used as an intensifier in English for several centuries, though recently this has been considered somewhat controversial by language prescriptivists .
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
(Literal meaning: … has a walking pea.) "Nu donn einer ens Boter bei de Fesch." - Someone (of you) must become real now! Tell us clearly now! Give us all the details and background information now! (Literal meaning: … butter to the fish.) This is also quite common in Dutch, Flemish, and the entire North of Germany. "Kumm, lohß jonn ...
The plain meaning rule (a.k.a. "literal rule") Literal (mathematical logic), certain logical roles taken by propositions; Literal (computer programming), a fixed value in a program's source code; Biblical literalism; Titled works: Literal; Three-issue series The Literals, in Fables comics franchise
Dialectic – a term that has been defined differently by Aristotle and Petrus Ramus, among others; generally, it means using verbal communication to come to an agreement on a topic. Dispositio – the stage of planning the structure and sequence of ideas; often referred to as arrangement, the second of Cicero's five rhetorical canons.
The exact origin of the phrase is unknown: the Oxford English Dictionary suggests a transitional use from 1950, but a definitely figurative use only as late as 1978: He drew a line in the sand with the toe of his boot, and said, 'It's as though I told you "I can punch you in the nose, but you can't reach across that line to hit me back."'