literary
adjective
lit·er·ary
ˈli-tə-ˌrer-ē 
1
a
: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of humane learning or literature
a literary education
a literary institution
b
: bookish sense 2
an essay written in a very literary style
c
: of or relating to books
a literary agent
a literary manuscript
2
a
: well-read
he is literary, given to quoting to himself rather long stretches of remembered lines—
F. J. Hoffman
F. J. Hoffman
b
: of or relating to authors or scholars or to their professions
her literary biographies
Examples of literary in a Sentence
Do his books have any literary merit?
Mystery fiction is only one of many literary forms.
an essay written in a very literary style
The author uses many literary devices in his work.
He entered the literary world right out of college.
She hired a literary agent.
Recent Examples on the Web
Schiffman previously served as a partner at Intellectual Property Group and as head of literary property divisions at both Gersh and William Morris Endeavor before joining Echo Lake.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 27 June 2025
Developers feed their chatbot models on a torrent of material, much of it scraped from the web — everything from distinguished literary works to random babbling — as well as collections holding millions of books, articles, scientific papers and the like, some of it copyrighted.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 27 June 2025
As judge for the Book Society, Britain’s first celebrity book club, Lynd assessed manuscripts each month for over twenty years, shaping literary tastes and the books the club selected.
—Nicola Wilson
june 26, Literary Hub, 26 June 2025
Erivo has previously joined other literary projects as an audiobook narrator.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, People.com, 26 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for literary
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Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 27 June 2025
Developers feed their chatbot models on a torrent of material, much of it scraped from the web — everything from distinguished literary works to random babbling — as well as collections holding millions of books, articles, scientific papers and the like, some of it copyrighted.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 27 June 2025
As judge for the Book Society, Britain’s first celebrity book club, Lynd assessed manuscripts each month for over twenty years, shaping literary tastes and the books the club selected.
—Nicola Wilson
june 26, Literary Hub, 26 June 2025
Erivo has previously joined other literary projects as an audiobook narrator.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, People.com, 26 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for literary
Cite this Entry
“Literary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literary. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
literary
adjective
lit·er·ary
ˈlit-ə-ˌrer-ē
1
a
: of or relating to literature
b
2
: of or relating to writers or writing as a profession
literarily
adverb
ˌlit-ə-ˈrer-ə-lē
literariness
noun
ˈlit-ə-ˌrer-ē-nəs
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