Definition of "literary" []

Of, relating to, or dealing with literature: literary criticism. (adjective)
Of or relating to writers or the profession of literature: literary circles. (adjective)
Versed in or fond of literature or learning. (adjective)
Appropriate to literature rather than everyday speech or writing. (adjective)
Bookish; pedantic. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "literary" in a sentence

"Medora Manson, in her prosperous days, had inaugurated a literary salon; but it had soon died out owing to the reluctance of the literary to frequent it."
"In concluding this study of the two recently discovered tablets of the old Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh Epic which has brought us several steps further in the interpretation and in our understanding of the method of composition of the most notable literary production of ancient Babylonia, it will be proper to consider the _literary_ relationship of the old Babylonian to the Assyrian version."
"I love excellent writing, I love wit, I hate pretension, and in some cases I find the Booker tends toward books that enjoy the term literary far too much at the expense of readability; not always but sometimes."

Words like "literary"

blue bluestocking bookish colloquial educated

formal inky learned letter literacy

literal literary criticism literary device

literary form

literary genre

literary technique literary theory literate literature paper