Origin: Latin suffix -al
Literal has 7 different meanings across 2 categories:
a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind
"The newspaper apology admitted that a literal error caused by a misaligned printing plate resulted in an entire paragraph being reversed before publication."
A misprint (or occasionally a scribal error) that affects a letter.
"The editor corrected the literal of 'the' to read 'tho' after noticing it was just a printing mistake affecting a single letter."
In plain English: A literal is an exact, word-for-word meaning taken from what someone actually said without adding any extra interpretation.
"You can't take every metaphor in his speech literally, so don't treat them like literal facts."
Exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical.
"The translator provided a literal version of the poem that kept every word in its original language without adding any metaphors."
In plain English: Literal means taking something exactly as it is written without adding any hidden meaning.
"She took his warning quite literally and stopped driving immediately after dark."
Usage: Use "literal" when describing something taken exactly at face value, such as taking an instruction literally rather than metaphorically. Avoid confusing it with the noun form referring to printing errors unless specifically discussing typography or paleography.
The word "literal" comes from the Latin phrase litteralis, meaning "pertaining to letters." It traveled into English through Old French and Middle English, originally describing anything related to written characters before evolving to mean exactness in interpretation.