# literary

Pronunciation: US say "LIT-uh-rair-ee" /ˈlɪtəɹɛ(ə)ɹi/; UK/AUS say "LIT-uh-ruh-ree" /ˈlɪtəɹəɹi/

## Adjective

1. Connected with literature and the writing of books, poems, and plays.
   - Simple: Having to do with books, stories, and writing as an art.
   - _The museum houses an important literary archive of unpublished manuscripts._
   - _Her essay traces the literary movements that shaped postwar fiction._
2. Suited to formal or artistic writing rather than to ordinary, everyday language.
   - Simple: Used in serious or artistic writing instead of in everyday talk.
   - _The translator kept a literary tone where the original sounded plain and conversational._
   - _Such an elaborate inversion feels too literary for a casual email._
3. Relating to authors, or to writing pursued as a profession.
   - Simple: Having to do with writers and the work of writing books.
   - _The two writers maintained a lively literary correspondence for years._
   - _She moved to the capital to break into its literary circles._
4. Having a wide knowledge of literature or of the craft of writing.
   - Simple: Knowing a lot about books, authors, and writing.
   - _A genuinely literary reviewer recognized the allusion at once._
   - _Their host turned out to be remarkably literary, quoting poets from memory._
5. Fond of books and given to reading and study.
   - Simple: Loving books and spending lots of time reading.
   - _She was a shy, literary child who spent every recess in the library._
   - _In an office full of sports fans, Dana was the literary one, always carrying a paperback in her bag._

## Origin

This word comes from the French littéraire.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/literary (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).