Meanings
comparative more textual · superlative most textual · alternative obsolete textuall
- Of or pertaining to text.
- Of or pertaining to textuality.
On any given Friday night at the Claremont Colleges, between 15 and 20 Jewish students gather to sing wordless melodies, dive into textual study of Talmud or James Baldwin, or hold workshops on antisemitism.
2019 July 3, Jess Schwalb, “Red Line Rebellion”, in Jewish Currents, archived from the original on 02 Jul 2022 - Of or pertaining to text as opposed to other document elements.
I see that the editor revised the document's metadata, headers, and images, but I don't see any textual changes.
- Pertaining to text messages, by analogy with sexual: textual harassment, textual intercourse; compare sexting.
Origin
- Middle English-el
- Latintextus
- Latintextuālis
- Middle Englishtextewell
- Englishtextual
From Middle English textewell, textueel, textuel, textuele, tixtuel (“learned in texts, bookish”), possibly from Latin textuālis; also compare Middle French textuele; or perhaps a coinage by Chaucer from Latin textus and Middle English -el. English spelling conformed to Latin from late 15c. By surface analysis, text + -ual.
More words from Middle English, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans tekstueel
- tekstueelof or pertaining to text
Bulgarian текстов
- текстов (tekstov)of or pertaining to text
Catalan textual
- textualof or pertaining to text
Danish skriftlig, tekstuel
- skriftligof or pertaining to text
- tekstuelof or pertaining to text
Dutch tekstueel
- tekstueelof or pertaining to text
Esperanto teksta
- tekstaof or pertaining to text
Finnish tekstuaalinen
- tekstuaalinenof or pertaining to text
French textuel
- textuelof or pertaining to text
German textlich, textuell
- textlichof or pertaining to text
- textuellof or pertaining to text
Greek κειμενικός
- κειμενικός (keimenikós)of or pertaining to text
Indonesian tekstual
- tekstualof or pertaining to text
Irish téacsach
- téacsachof or pertaining to text
Italian testuale
- testualeof or pertaining to text
Norwegian Bokmål tekstlig
- tekstligof or pertaining to text
Polish tekstowy
- tekstowyof or pertaining to text
Portuguese textual
- textualof or pertaining to text
Romanian textual
- textualof or pertaining to text
Russian те́кстовый, текстово́й
- те́кстовый (tékstovyj)of or pertaining to text
- текстово́й (tekstovój)of or pertaining to text
- текстуа́льный (tekstuálʹnyj)of or pertaining to text
Spanish textual
- textualof or pertaining to text
Ukrainian те́кстови́й
- те́кстови́й (tékstovýj)of or pertaining to text
Cite this entry
textual. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/textual
“textual.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/textual. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “textual,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/textual.
Source: textual on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.