Literature Meaning
/ˈlɪt.(ə.)ɹə.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounThe body of all written works.
nounThe collected creative writing of a nation, people, group, or culture.
Sentence Examples
We need some formal instruction in literature.
The professor is familiar with contemporary literature.
It is worthwhile reading classical works of literature.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
For her degree, she studied classic novels, poems, and plays known as English ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She decided to major in English ____ at the university this year.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Latin littera Proto-Indo-European *-tew-? Proto-Indo-European *-r-eh₂? Latin -tūra Latin litterātūrader. Old French littératurebor. Middle English literature English literature From Middle English literature, from Old French littérature, from Latin literatura or litteratura, from littera (“letter”), from Etruscan, from Ancient Greek διφθέρᾱ (diphthérā, “tablet”). Displaced native Old English bōccræft.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The obvious question to ask at this point is: ‘Why posit the existence of a set of Thematic Relations (THEME, AGENT, INSTRUMENT, etc.) distinct from constituent structure relations?ʼ The answer given in the relevant literature is that a variety of linguistic phenomena can be accounted for in a more principled way in terms of Thematic Functions than in terms of constituent structure relations."
— 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 7, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 373:
"In fact, information on when each of the terms first appeared in English, and if obsolete, how long they persisted, is entirely absent from the literature."
— 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 3:
"They all assumed to be mighty rakish and knowing, they were not very tidy in their private dresses, they were not at all orderly in their domestic arrangements, and the combined literature of the whole company would have produced but a poor letter on any subject."
— 1854, Charles Dickens, Hard Times: A Novel:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
For her degree, she studied classic novels, poems, and plays known as English ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She decided to major in English ____ at the university this year.