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litotes.

A figure of speech whereby something is stated by denying its opposite.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/laɪˈtəʊ.tiːz/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A figure of speech whereby something is stated by denying its opposite.

    countable · rhetoric · uncountable
  2. A figure of speech whereby something is stated by denying its opposite. The negation of a negative quality to assert a positive.

    countable · especially · rhetoric · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Learned borrowing from Late Latin lītotēs, from Ancient Greek λιτότης (litótēs, literally “plainness”), from λιτός (litós, “simple”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.