EN

Synonyms for literary

  • adjective

Most common

academic scholarly literate bookish scholastic erudite

All synonyms

Adjective

bookish, scholarly, academic, well-read, literate, scholastic, erudite, book-learned, formal, educated, learned, lettered, bookly rare

Antonyms

illiterate, colloquial, vernacular

All antonyms of literary →

Definitions

  1. adj. 1

    Relating to literature.

Related words

Word family
literacy literal literate literature
Phrases
literary criticism literary device literary fiction literary technique

Example sentences

  • academic Academic writing could be supported by statistics.
  • scholarly Israeli historian Ilan Pappe wrote many scholarly works.
  • literate Yanni was barely literate and spoke little Berber.
  • scholastic He exceeds all his brothers in scholastic ability.
  • erudite I have no ambition to outshine him or any other erudite.

Popularity over time

Word1850 → 2019Trend
literarysteady
academicrising
scholarlyrising
literaterising
bookishrising
scholasticfalling

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

6 letters
formal2, bookly
7 letters
learned1, erudite3, bookish2
8 letters
academic4, educated4, literate3, lettered2
9 letters
scholarly3
10 letters
scholastic3

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (formal2 = 2 syllables).