Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite, as in This is no small problem.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In rhetoric, a figure in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary. Thus, “a citizen of no mean city” means one “of an illustrious city.”
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Rhet.) A diminution or softening of statement for the sake of avoiding censure or increasing the effect by contrast with the moderation shown in the form of expression; a form of understatement.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun rhetoric A
figure of speech in which the speaker emphasizes the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite; afigure of speech in whichunderstatement is used withnegation to express a positive attribute; a form ofirony
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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At first called litotes or meiosis, such understatement came to be called irony, at least by the end of the sixteenth century.
IRONY NORMAN D. KNOX 1968
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This construction is technically called litotes; it's a form of deliberate understatement that is often used comically.
The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed RUSSELL SMITH 2011
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This construction is technically called litotes; it's a form of deliberate understatement that is often used comically.
The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed RUSSELL SMITH 2011
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A factually accurate restatement of my position, but a kind of litotes, like saying Lucy Liu is not very hideous at all.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Would the Public Support “Cap and Refund”? 2010
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A factually accurate restatement of my position, but a kind of litotes, like saying Lucy Liu is not very hideous at all.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Would the Public Support “Cap and Refund”? 2010
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Belated kudos to ricky p., on that splendid "litotes" analogy.
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I'm not obscenely uneducated, but I had to look up "litotes".
Steve Janke and dead, sodomized hookers? Hey, I'm just sayin'. CC 2008
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They could be employing the subtle literary device of "litotes".
A tidying-up exercise Richard 2005
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For readers too young to remember Dangerfield, that's not litotes.
President Dangerfield James Taranto 2011
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In a rare experiment with litotes he said: We could have bowled better; we should have bowled differently.
Mechanical bowling to blame for England breakdown | Vic Marks 2011
nicsims commented on the word litotes
"Well, this doesn't suck."
September 23, 2007
reesetee commented on the word litotes
Not a bad word. ;-)
September 23, 2007
johnmperry commented on the word litotes
different from zeugma, apparently. Or do I mean ellipsis?
June 19, 2008
hgould3 commented on the word litotes
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
September 29, 2010
SouvikDubey commented on the word litotes
Not difficult to remember :)
July 22, 2012
knitandpurl commented on the word litotes
"He was not exactly ugly (a litotes)."
Oreo by Fran Ross, p 182 of the New Directions paperback
October 7, 2015