- [only before noun] connected with literature
- literary criticism/theory
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- [usually before noun] (of a language or style of writing) suitable for or typical of a work of literature
- It was Chaucer who really turned English into a literary language.
- [usually before noun] liking literature very much; studying or writing literature
- a literary man
- She was one of the great literary figures of her age.
Word Originmid 17th cent. (in the sense ‘relating to the letters of the alphabet’): from Latin litterarius, from littera ‘letter of the alphabet’, (plural) ‘epistle, literature, culture’.
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