What is litotes?

Definition
	Litotes is the use of a negated antonym to make an understatement or to emphatically affirm the positive.

Examples (English)

In John 6:37 in the Bible, the clause I will in no wise cast out means "I will certainly receive."
An expression of the form not unX, as in the following:

Moreover, the attempt is not unsuccessful. (Eduard Schevardnadze)

Source:

Example from Beekman, Callow, and Kopesec 1981 183

Generic
	Litotes is a kind of
	What is a trope?

Sources
	Pei and Gaynor 1954 125
	Beekman and Callow 1974 183

Context for this page:

Concept module: litotes
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): L
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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