1. [n]  a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind
2. [adj]  without interpretation or embellishment; "a literal translation of the scene before him"
3. [adj]  (of a translation) corresponding word for word with the original; "literal translation of the article"; "an awkward word-for-word translation"
4. [adj]  limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text; "a literal translation"
5. [adj]  of the clearest kind; usually used for emphasis; "it's the literal truth"; "a matter of investment, pure and simple"
6. [adj]  lacking stylistic embellishment; "a literal description"; "wrote good but plain prose"; "a plain unadorned account of the coronation"; "a forthright unembellished style"
7. [adj]  being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something; "her actual motive"; "a literal solitude like a desert"- G.K.Chesterton; "a genuine dilemma"

1. \Lit"er*al\, a. [F. lit['e]ral, litt['e]ral, L.
   litteralis, literalis, fr. littera, litera, a letter. See
   {Letter}.]
   1. According to the letter or verbal expression; real; not
      figurative or metaphorical; as, the literal meaning of a
      phrase.
            It hath but one simple literal sense whose light the
            owls can not abide.                   --Tyndale.
   2. Following the letter or exact words; not free.
            A middle course between the rigor of literal
            translations and the liberty of paraphrasts.
                                                  --Hooker.
   3. Consisting of, or expressed by, letters.
            The literal notation of numbers was known to
            Europeans before the ciphers.         --Johnson.
   4. Giving a strict or literal construction; unimaginative;
      matter-of fast; -- applied to persons.
   {Literal contract} (Law), contract of which the whole
      evidence is given in writing. --Bouvier.
   {Literal equation} (Math.), an equation in which known
      quantities are expressed either wholly or in part by means
      of letters; -- distinguished from a numerical equation.
   

2. \Lit"er*al\, n.
   Literal meaning. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
   

A constant made available to a process, by inclusion in the executable text. Most modern systems do not allow texts to modify themselves during execution, so literals are indeed constant; their value is written at compile-time and is read-only at run time.

In contrast, values placed in variables or files and accessed by the process via a symbolic name, can be changed during execution. This may be an asset. For example, messages can be given in a choice of languages by placing the translation in a file.

Literals are used when such modification is not desired. The name of the file mentioned above (not its content), or a physical constant such as 3.14159, might be coded as a literal. Literals can be accessed quickly, a potential advantage of their use.