Correct spelling, explanation: literal appeared in Middle English, but the origins of the word can be found in Latin words littera and litera, which meant letter. Therefore, the original meaning of literal is letter by letter or according to the letter of a language. Interestingly, the meaning of literal hasn’t changed much over the centuries.

Definition of literal:
1. adjective – when we refer to the basic or original meaning of something,
The literal meaning of this word has gradually changed over the centuries.
2. adjective – referred to a text which was translated word by word, without looking at the context of the whole,
This poem is a literal translation and that’s why it doesn’t make any sense.

Phrases with literal:
Some common phrases with literal include:
1. literal error – a spelling mistake that results from changing one or two letters in a word,
A minor literal error in my text message totally changed its meaning.
2. literal sense – the most basic meaning of something,
The text is full of metaphors co you can’t understand it in its literal sense.

Incorrect spelling, explanation: a common mistake made by both learners of English and its native speakers is to spell the word literal as litteral, which is incorrect. The mistake probably comes from the fact that there is a popular word in English litter, which indeed has a double -t letter in the middle. However, litter and literal have got nothing in common and they belong to two different word families so the only correct spelling is literal.