textual

adjective

tex·​tu·​al ˈteks-chə-wəl 

-chəl

: of, relating to, or based on a text

textuality

ˌteks-chə-ˈwa-lə-tē 

noun

textually adverb

Did you know?

Before the invention of the printing press, books were produced by hand. When the text of a book is copied this way, textual errors can creep in, and a text that's been copied again and again can contain many such errors. By comparing different copies of a work, textual critics try to figure out where the copyists went wrong and restore the text to its original form so that modern readers can again enjoy the correct versions of ancient texts. When a class performs textual analysis of a poem, however, they are looking closely at its individual words and phrases in an effort to determine the poem's meanings.

Examples of textual in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

If a system leaned too heavily on on-page textual signals, people could just overstuff their content with word bloat to artificially boost ranking. — Alan Bradley, ArsTechnica, 7 Aug. 2026

In Skin Sets, a series of textual works created between 1997 and 2016, Pope. — Coco Fusco, The New York Review of Books, 1 Aug. 2026

TFMs, however, are built to properly process numeric and textual data within rows and columns, identify crucial patterns, and manage common data issues like missing values or anomalies. — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026

For professors who studied literary themes and metaphors for a living, theory endowed their scholarship with the armature of a larger purpose, transforming textual analysis into jargony skirmishes in a crusade for social justice. — Emily Eakin, Harpers Magazine, 28 July 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English textuel, from Medieval Latin textus text

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing textual

• textual critic
• textual criticism

Kids Definition

textual

adjective

tex·​tu·​al ˈteks-chə(-wə)l 

: of, relating to, or based on a text

textuality

ˌteks-chə-ˈwal-ət-ē

noun

textually

ˈtek-chə-(wə)l-ē

adverb