LITOTES Definition & Meaning

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litotes

[ lahy-tuh-teez, lit-uh-, lahy-toh-teez ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Rhetoric.

plural litotes.

understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”

litotes

/ ˈ��ɪ��əʊˌ�پ�ː�� /

noun

understatement for rhetorical effect, esp when achieved by using negation with a term in place of using an antonym of that term, as in "She was not a little upset" for "She was extremely upset."

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of litotes¹

First recorded in 1650–60; from New Latin, from Greek ��ī��ó��ŧ�� “plainness, simplicity, understatement (in rhetoric),” derivative of ��ī��ó�� “smooth, plain, simple”

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of litotes¹

C17: from Greek, from litos small

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

I had never heard the word litotes, which means “words doctors use to remind you they’re smarter than you are.”

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If you were feeling technical, you might call it "litotes" and Milton pulls a similar trick in his line: "Love, not the lowest end of human life".

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It's outlined in general and unemotional terms in the climactic sixth and seventh stanzas, with a faint touch of extra-dry humour in the litotes of "pointed questions", "whoever they had come to see", etc.

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V.—I pardon this epitrope, but pray use less metaphor and more litotes in the prosopography you dedicate to my modest entity— J.—What will you?

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The use of tmesis, asyndeton, anacoluthon, aposiopesis, hyperbaton, hyperbole, litotes, in Latin oratory and poetry.

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