noun
- a figure of speech in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary
Usage: rhetoric; literary device
Examples
- The phrase ‘not bad’ is a litotes meaning ‘good’.
- When she said the test was ‘not easy,’ she was using litotes to mean it was very difficult.
- His comment that the movie was ‘not uninteresting’ was a litotes for ‘quite engaging’.
- The writer employed litotes when describing the hero as ‘no coward’.
- Saying ‘I’m not unhappy’ is a litotes that suggests contentment.
- The critic’s review used litotes, calling the performance ‘not without merit’.