Litotes

Litotes Examples in Daily Life

Litotes are often used in daily conversations. We use many litotes in a sentence. They can be used to understate a positive situation, as shown in the examples below:

This indicates that something is actually good.

This suggests that he is similar to his dad.

This implies that the person agrees with what was said.

This means that the person actually knows a lot about the book.

Litotes can also be used to understate a negative situation. For example:

This implies that the person doesn't like the film.

This suggests that she is unhappy.

This indicates that he is an unclean person.

This implies that she was not smart.

In some cases, the meaning of a litotic statement can be ambiguous - either meaning something positive or negative depending on how the statement is uttered or the context of the situation. For example:

Litotes Examples

An example of literary litotes in a sentence is apparent in Shakespeare's Hamlet (1609) during the speech of King Claudius. In this speech, he is referring to Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway:

In this example, 'hath not failed' is used to imply that he has been successful in pestering King Claudius with messages.

Fig. 2 - Litotes can be found in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Another example is seen in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813) when Elizabeth is considering leaving home to visit her sister Charlotte:

Here, litotes is used in a humorous way to politely indicate that home is becoming intolerable for Elizabeth; her home does in fact have faults. As a result, she'd be happy to welcome change and leave her home.

Litotes Examples - Ordinary vs Litotic

Below are a few examples of how ordinary statements may be altered to form litotic statements:

The Effect of Litotes

Litotes can be used for a variety of reasons (both in daily life and literature) to achieve different effects and elicit different responses from the listener/reader. Some further examples of litotes in a sentence are as follows:

Ironic humour

Litotes can be used for comedic purposes to evoke humour in an ironic way. It is usually done in a more informal context, among people who are familiar with one another. For example:

Euphemism

The use of litotes allows people to state things in an indirect way that is less harsh. This is known as a euphemism. As a result, this could be seen as more polite and respectful than directly stating the literal meaning. For example:

Modesty

Litotes can be used to downplay someone's achievements/skills, as not to brag about themselves or make others feel jealous. For example:

Litotes vs Understatement

Understatement is the intentional underplaying of something to make it seem less important than it is. Understatement does not use double negatives to do this. For example:

On the other hand, litotes is a kind of understatement that ironically negates a statement to express the opposite of what is meant - often done through the use of double negatives.

Litotes vs Sarcasm

Although both of these could be considered a form of verbal irony and they are both examples of figures of speech, there is a difference.

Let's look at the meaning of sarcasm: