litotes

See also: Litotes and lítotes

English

Etymology

From French litote, from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs), from λιτός (litós, “simple”).

Examples (figure of speech)
She's not the nicest person I know (intending mean) He's not exactly a rocket scientist (intending stupid) Organizing these records is no small task (intending difficult) Not bad (intending great)

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) enPR: lītō'tēz, IPA^(key): /laɪˈtəʊ.tiːz/
Hyphenation: li-to-tes
Audio (RP) (file)

Noun

litotes (plural litotes)

(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.

Antonyms

See hyperbole

Hypernyms

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
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

Anagrams

Sottile, oil test, toilest, toilets

French

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /li.tɔt/

Noun

litotes f

plural of litote

Portuguese

Noun

litotes f (plural litotes)

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

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