Glossary term L

Litotes

Litotes is the use of a negated antonym to make an understatement or to emphatically affirm the positive.

(English)

In John 6:37 in the Bible, the clause I will in no wise cast out means "I will certainly receive."

An expression of the form not unX, as in the following:

Moreover, the attempt is not unsuccessful. (Eduard Schevardnadze)

  1. Beekman, Callow, and Kopesec 1981, 183
  2. Pei and Gaynor 1954, 125
  3. Beekman and Callow 1974, 183
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