litotes

See also: Litotes and lítotes

English

Pronunciation

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

Etymology

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

Noun

litotes (uncountable)

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.

Hypernyms

• irony
• understatement, meiosis

Antonyms

• See hyperbole

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
• 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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Portuguese

Noun

litotes f (plural litotes)

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