Literary example sentences
Related (14): literature, novelist, poet, prose, fiction, narrative, metaphor, symbolism, author, written, classic, intellectual, scholarly, artistic
"Literary" Example Sentences
Common Phrases
- literary fiction
- literary merit
- literary device
- literary world
- literary analysis
- literary tradition
- literary work
- literary magazine
- literary reference
- literary style
- literary canon
- literary criticism
Examples by Level
A1
- This book is very literary and difficult.
- My teacher said the story is literary, not simple.
- Literary books are not for children.
A2
- She always reads literary novels because she loves serious stories.
- The literary style of that author makes me think about life differently.
- He wants to study literary history at university next year.
B1
- There's something about literary fiction that makes you slow down and actually pay attention to the words.
- Most people find literary magazines boring, but I find them weirdly addictive.
- The literary references in that film went completely over my head until someone explained them.
B2
- What struck me about her work was how she balanced commercial appeal with genuine literary merit.
- The literary establishment tends to dismiss genre fiction, which is both snobbish and unfair.
- He'd spent years chasing literary prestige before realizing he actually preferred writing thrillers.
C1
- The tension between accessibility and literary ambition has long defined the most interesting contemporary fiction.
- What we call literary value is often just a reflection of who gets to decide what counts as serious.
- Her early work was dismissed as merely commercial, yet it possessed a literary sophistication that later critics came to recognize.
C2
- There's a peculiar irony in how the most enduring literary achievements often arrive disguised as entertainment.
- The literary canon, for all its pretensions to timelessness, reveals itself upon examination to be a rather narrow conversation among the already-privileged.
- What makes a work literary, ultimately, is not its difficulty but its refusal to offer easy answers — and that quality can emerge anywhere, in any form.
Examples by Scenario
🏠 Everyday Life
- My mum keeps buying these literary magazines from the newsagent even though she never reads them.
- I tried reading a literary novel on the train and gave up after three pages — too much thinking required.
- The literary cafe downtown has become my escape when I need to get away from the house.
💼 Workplace
- Our team lead keeps quoting literary references in meetings that nobody understands.
- The office book club picked a literary novel this month and half of us are pretending we've read it.
- She mentioned her literary background in the interview and somehow that made her seem overqualified for the job.
📊 Business
- The publisher's strategy shifted toward literary fiction after realizing their commercial releases weren't sustainable.
- Our literary imprint has become the prestige division, even though it generates less revenue than the romance line.
- Investing in literary talent is a long game — most debut authors won't earn out their advances for years.
🛒 Buying / Shopping
- This literary anthology costs thirty pounds and I'm not sure if it's worth it just for three good stories.
- The bookshop owner recommended a literary novel but warned me it's slow-paced and depressing.
- I've been eyeing this literary journal subscription for months but can't justify the expense.
✈️ Travel
- The literary tour of Dublin was brilliant — we visited all the places Joyce wrote about.
- I packed three literary novels for the flight and finished none of them.
- The hotel advertised itself as a literary retreat, but it was just a regular bed and breakfast with books on the shelves.
📚 Education
- The teacher assigned a literary analysis essay and gave us two weeks to write it.
- My daughter's school is pushing literary classics, but she'd rather read fantasy.
- The university's literary program is competitive — only thirty students get in each year.
❤️ Relationships
- We bonded over literary fiction at university and spent years discussing books in bed.
- He pretends to enjoy literary novels to impress me, but I caught him reading thrillers on his phone.
- She left me a note quoting a literary passage when she moved out — even our breakup had to be poetic.
📰 News / Politics
- The literary world erupted after the prestigious award went to a debut author nobody had heard of.
- A prominent literary critic was fired after old tweets resurfaced revealing offensive comments.
- The government announced funding cuts to literary programs in schools, sparking outrage among educators.
💻 Technology
- The new app uses AI to generate literary summaries of books you haven't read.
- There's a literary podcast that's become unexpectedly popular with Gen Z audiences.
- The e-reader's literary annotation feature lets you highlight passages and share them instantly.
📝 Formal Writing
- The study examined how literary exposure in childhood correlates with academic achievement in secondary education.
- This paper argues that the distinction between literary and commercial fiction is increasingly untenable in contemporary publishing.
- Literary merit, as defined by institutional gatekeepers, has historically excluded voices from marginalized communities.