Meanings
adjectiveliteral-minded (comparative more literal-minded, superlative most literal-minded)
comparative more literal-minded · superlative most literal-minded
- Tending to take things literally, without understanding subtext, etc.
When spiritual knowledge is lost, then literal-minded fools go around slaying relatives or cutting out hearts and lifting them up to the sun.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 231
Cite this entry
APA
literal-minded. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/literal-minded
MLA
“literal-minded.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/literal-minded. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “literal-minded,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/literal-minded.
Source: literal-minded on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.