Literary

How to spell literary

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce literary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does literary mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to literature, books, or the writing of serious creative works.

Literary in a sentence

• The magazine reviews new poetry and other literary work each month.

• Her literary ambitions led her to write three novels before turning thirty.

Where does literary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin litterarius, meaning 'belonging to letters or writing', which was built directly on littera, the Latin word for a single letter of the alphabet and, in its plural litterae, for writings or literature as a whole. English borrowed it in the early 1600s to describe anything concerned with books, written works, and the world of authorship. The same littera root sits at the heart of a whole family of English words, including 'letter', 'literate', 'literacy', and 'literally', all of which trace back to that idea of marks made on a page. The single 't' in 'literary' often trips writers up precisely because of those relatives, since the Latin original actually doubled the consonant in litterae. Keeping the link to 'literature', which also has just one 't' in its English spelling, is a reliable way to remember the form.

How the word is built

• liter- (from Latin littera: letter, written character)
• -ary (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')