figurative

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English

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Etymology

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From Middle French figuratif.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈfɪɡəɹətɪv/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

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figurative (comparative more figurative, superlative most figurative)

  1. Of use as a metaphor, simile, metonym or other figure of speech, as opposed to literal; using figures; as when saying that someone who eats more than they should is a pig or like a pig.
    • 2005 May 1, “The Sea of Love”, in New York Times‎[1]:
      The lovers she seems to pursue with her figurative language in fact retreat under the barrage of similes, metaphors and fables.
    • 2017 May 16, Jerry Stuger, “Kafka and Autism. The Undisclosed Logic Behind Kafka’s Work”, in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, volume 47, →DOI, pages 2336–2347:
      It is important to emphasize that Kafka as an autistic person was not always consciously aware his interpretations and writings were literal, thus the line between literal and figurative were not consciously clear for Kafka. This blurring stems from the specific focus of autistic persons who look at external predictable behavior of people and situations rather than at internal mental states of individuals. Kafka wrote from his autistic perspective in which the literal form is a default state of understanding the external world. For Kafka to move beyond the literal is not only to express that which cannot be said literally, but to express that which is not literal. The figurative is not simply not the literal, it is more than the literal. It is beyond the literal. The gap between the literal and the figurative, across which the reader is compelled by language to traverse, is for Kafka also the space which language cannot adequately express. The use of parable by Kafka marks his most concentrated effort to examine the space between language and that which is beyond language.
  2. Metaphorically so called.
  3. With many figures of speech.
  4. Emblematic, symbolic; representative, exemplative
    • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
      This, they will say, was figurative, and served, by God's appointment, but for a time, to shadow out the true glory of a more divine sanctity.
  5. (art) Representing forms recognisable in life and clearly derived from real object sources, in contrast to abstract art.
    • 1875-1886, John Addington Symonds, Renaissance in Italy
      They belonged to a nation dedicated to the figurative arts, and they wrote for a public familiar with painted form.

Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Further reading

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French

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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figurative

  1. feminine singular of figuratif

German

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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figurative

  1. inflection of figurativ:
    1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
    2. strong nominative/accusative plural
    3. weak nominative all-gender singular
    4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

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Adjective

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figurative

  1. feminine plural of figurativo

Anagrams

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Norwegian Bokmål

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Adjective

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figurative

  1. definite singular/plural of figurativ

Norwegian Nynorsk

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Adjective

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figurative

  1. definite singular/plural of figurativ
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