litotes

See also: Litotes and lítotes

English

Etymology

From French litote, from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs), from λιτός (litós, “simple”).

Examples (figure of speech)
She's not the nicest person I know (intending mean) He's not exactly a rocket scientist (intending stupid) Organizing these records is no small task (intending difficult) Not bad (intending good)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lītō'tēz, IPA^(key): /laɪˈtəʊ.tiːz/
• Hyphenation: li-to-tes

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

Noun

litotes (plural litotes)

1. (rhetoric) An ironic figure of speech whereby something is stated by denying its opposite, particularly the negation of a negative quality to say something positive.

Antonyms

• See hyperbole

Hypernyms

• irony
• understatement, meiosis

Translations

rhetoric: stating a point by denying its opposite

• Catalan: lítote f
• Esperanto: litoto, maltroigo
• Finnish: litoteesi
• French: litote (fr) f
• German: Litotes (de) f
• Greek: λιτότητα (el) (litótita)

  Ancient: λιτότης f (litótēs)

• Ido: litoto (io)
• Irish: liotóid f
• Italian: litote (it) f

• Manx: fo-raa m
• Polish: litota f, litotes (pl) m
• Portuguese: litotes (pt) f
• Russian: лито́та (ru) f (litóta)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: литота f

  Latin: litota (sh) f

• Spanish: litote (es) f, lítotes (es) f
• Tagalog: makumbaba

See also

• paradiastole
• double negative

Anagrams

• Sottile, oil test, toilest, toilets

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.tɔt/

Noun

litotes f

1. plural of litote

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Polish

Etymology

From Latin litotes, from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs), from λιτός (litós, “simple”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lʲiˈtɔ.tɛs/

Noun

litotes m inan (indeclinable)

1. (rhetoric) litotes

   Synonym: litota

Further reading

• litotes in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• litotes in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Portuguese

Noun

litotes f (plural litotes)

1. (rhetoric) litotes (an understatement employed for rhetoric effect)