An equation in which the coefficient and the constant terms are represented by letters.
General equations or standard equations and other parametric equations are examples of literal equations.
Example
The literal equation \({x^2}\) + px + q = 0 has the roots :
\(x_{1} = \dfrac{-p + \sqrt{{p}^{2} − 4q}}{2}\) and \(x_{2} = \dfrac{-p − \sqrt{{p}^{2} − 4q}}{2}\)