literal

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”

without interpretation or embellishment

• “a literal translation of the scene before him”

limited to the explicit meaning of a word or text

• “a literal translation”

lacking stylistic embellishment

• “a literal description”
• “wrote good but plain prose”
• “a plain unadorned account of the coronation”
• “a forthright unembellished style”

of the clearest kind; usually used for emphasis

• “it”
• “;”

(of a translation) corresponding word for word with the original

• “literal translation of the article”
• “an awkward word-for-word translation”

a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind