Litotes (Figures of Speech)

LITOTES (Figures of Speech)

Litotes (LIE-tuh-teez, singular or plural) is a figure of speech that uses understatement by stating a positive as a gentle negative, like when we say,

• "Not bad" to mean "Good" or
• "It's not the cheapest..." to mean "It's expensive."

It might also use double negatives ("He's not unknown" for "He's famous").

--------

It can be used:

• for emphasis (calling Jeff Bezos "not poor" makes the listener realize how rich he is);
• to soften an observation ("He's not the neatest person" for "He's a slob"); or
• to seem modest (a world-champion fighter saying "I'm not bad at boxing").

---

Navigation:

• View this post on Facebook or Instagram
• Go to the Mini-Lessons Index

(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)