litotes

See also: Litotes and lítotes

English

Etymology

From Renaissance Latin litotes, from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs, literally “plainness”), from λιτός (litós, “simple”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /laɪˈtəʊ.tiːz/, enPR: lītō'tēz
• Hyphenation: li‧to‧tes

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

Noun

Examples (figure of speech)
She's not the nicest person I know (she is mean) He's not exactly a rocket scientist (he is stupid) Organizing these records is no small task (it is time-consuming) Not bad (good)

litotes (plural litotes)

1. (rhetoric) An ironic figure of speech whereby something is stated by denying its opposite, particularly the negation of a negative quality to say something positive.

   Antonym: hyperbole

   Hypernyms: irony, understatement, meiosis

   • 1895, William Congreve, “Introduction”, in G. S. Street, editor, The Comedies of William Congreve‎^[1], volume 1, Methuen and Co.:

     The delicacy which prompts a later generation to reject that name is by no means necessarily a result of stricter habits, is far more often due to the flatness which comes of untiring repetition and to the greater piquancy of litotes.

Translations

rhetoric: stating a point by denying its opposite

• Catalan: lítote f
• Esperanto: litoto, maltroigo
• Finnish: litoteesi
• French: litote (fr) f
• German: Litotes (de) f
• Greek: λιτότητα (el) (litótita)

  Ancient: λιτότης f (litótēs)

• Ido: litoto (io)
• Irish: liotóid f
• Italian: litote (it) f

• Manx: fo-raa m
• Polish: litota f, litotes (pl) m
• Portuguese: litotes (pt) f
• Russian: лито́та (ru) f (litóta)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: литота f

  Latin: litota (sh) f

• Spanish: litote (es) f, lítotes (es) f
• Tagalog: makumbaba

See also

• paradiastole
• double negative
• Appendix:Snowclones/not the X-est in the Y

Further reading

• litotes on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Litotes in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Sottile, oil test, toilest, toilets

---

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.tɔt/

Noun

litotes f

1. plural of litote

---

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

litotes m (definite singular litotesen, indefinite plural litoteser, definite plural litotesene)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2005; superseded by litot

---

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

litotes m (definite singular litotesen, indefinite plural litotesar, definite plural litotesane)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2005; superseded by litot

---

Polish

Etymology

From Latin litotes, from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs), from λιτός (litós, “simple”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lʲiˈtɔ.tɛs/

Noun

litotes m inan (indeclinable)

1. (rhetoric) litotes

   Synonym: litota

Further reading

• litotes in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• litotes in Polish dictionaries at PWN

---

Portuguese

Noun

litotes f (plural litotes)

1. (rhetoric) litotes (an understatement employed for rhetoric effect)