The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Literal \Lit"er*al\ (l[i^]t"[~e]r*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.
      [1913 Webster]

            It hath but one simple literal sense whose light the
            owls can not abide.                   --Tyndale.
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   2. Following the letter or exact words; not free.
      [1913 Webster]

            A middle course between the rigor of literal
            translations and the liberty of paraphrasts.
                                                  --Hooker.
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   3. Consisting of, or expressed by, letters.
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            The literal notation of numbers was known to
            Europeans before the ciphers.         --Johnson.
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   4. Giving a strict or literal construction; unimaginative;
      matter-of-fact; -- applied to persons.
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   Literal contract (Law), a 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.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Literal \Lit"er*al\, n.
   Literal meaning. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

literal
    adj 1: 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" [syn:
           actual, genuine, literal, real]
    2: without interpretation or embellishment; "a literal depiction
       of the scene before him"
    3: limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text; "a literal
       translation" [ant: figurative, nonliteral]
    4: avoiding embellishment or exaggeration (used for emphasis);
       "it's the literal truth"
    n 1: a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical
         failures of some kind [syn: misprint, erratum,
         typographical error, typo, literal error, literal]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 January 2023):

literal

    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.

   (1996-01-23)