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letter

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See also: Letter

English

Pronunciation

Cursive script letters (sense 1) of the English alphabet, together with some punctuation marks and numbers
A letter (sense 2) written in the early 19th century

Etymology 1

From Middle English letter, lettre, from Old French letre, from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet"; in plural, "epistle”), from Etruscan, from Ancient Greek διφθέρᾱ (diphthérā, “tablet”). Related to diphtheria. Displaced Old English bōcstæf (literally “book staff”) in sense 1 and ǣrendġewrit (literally “message writing”) in sense 2.

Alternative forms

Noun

letter (plural letters)

  1. A symbol in an alphabet.
    There are twenty-six letters in the English alphabet.
  2. A written or printed communication, generally longer and more formal than a note.
    I wrote a letter to my sister about my life.
    • 1692, William Walsh, “Preface”, in Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant:
      The style of letters ought to be free, easy, and natural.
    • 1892, P.A.C., edited by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke, Poet Lore: A Magazine of Letters, volume 4, New York, N.Y.: AMS Reprint Company, →OCLC, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s ‘Golden Legend’ and its Analogues, page 94:
      The magician gave this to the young man and said to him,“ Go at such an hour of the night and stand before a pagan tomb and call the demons, and throw the letter into the air, and immediately they will come to you.” And the young man called the devils and threw the letter into the air, and the prince of darkness came, […]
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
      He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.
    • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part I, London: Collins, →ISBN:
      An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.
  3. The literal meaning of something, as distinguished from its intended and remoter meaning (the spirit).
    • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Of Obedience”, in The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC, section I (Of Obedience to our Superiours), page 183:
      In obedience to humane laws, we muſt obſerve the letter of the Law, where we can without doing violence to the reaſon of the Law and the intention of the Law-giver: but where they croſſe each other, the charity of the Law is to be preferred before its diſcipline, and the reaſon of it before the letter.
    • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part IV”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 81:
      I broke the letter of it to keep the sense.
    • 2009 February 23, Laurence Peter, quoting Chris Davies, “Euro MP expenses 'can reach £1m'”, in BBC News‎[1], archived from the original on 2012-01-10:
      Some MEPs from some countries may have pocketed £2m more than I have by observing the letter but not the spirit of the rules.
  4. (in the plural) Literature.
    Benjamin Franklin was multiskilled – a scientist, politician and a man of letters.
  5. (law) A division unit of a piece of law marked by a letter of the alphabet.
    Letter (b) constitutes an exception to this provision.
  6. (US, uncountable) A size of paper, 8½ in × 11 in (215.9 mm × 279.4 mm).
  7. (Canada, uncountable) A size of paper, 215 mm × 280 mm.
  8. (US, scholastic) Clipping of varsity letter.
  9. (printing, dated) A single type; type, collectively; a style of type.
Synonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

letter (third-person singular simple present letters, present participle lettering, simple past and past participle lettered)

  1. (transitive) To print, inscribe, or paint letters on something.
  2. (intransitive, US, scholastic) To earn a varsity letter (award).
    • 1992 September 23, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes‎[2]:
      I think Mom lettered in shot put her junior year.
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English letere, equivalent to let +‎ -er.

Alternative forms

Noun

letter (plural letters)

  1. One who lets, or lets out.
    the letter of a room
    a blood-letter
  2. (archaic) One who retards or hinders.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

Noun

letter (plural letters)

  1. (obsolete) Alternative form of litter.

Further reading

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Afrikaans Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia af

Etymology

From Dutch letter, from Middle Dutch lettere, from Old French lettre, from Latin littera.

Pronunciation

Noun

letter (plural letters, diminutive lettertjie)

  1. letter (letter of the alphabet)

Derived terms

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Etymology

From Middle Dutch lettere, from Old French lettre, from Latin littera.

Pronunciation

Noun

letter f (plural letters, diminutive lettertje n)

  1. letter (letter of the alphabet)
  2. (obsolete) letter (written message)

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Afrikaans: letter
  • Negerhollands: letter
  • → Caribbean Javanese: lèter
  • → Indonesian: leter
  • → Japanese: レッテル (retteru)
  • → Papiamentu: lèter, lèterchi, letter
  • → Saramaccan: letè

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

Verb

letter

  1. present of lette

Etymology 2

Noun

letter m

  1. indefinite plural of lett (non-standard since 2005)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

letter m

  1. indefinite plural of lett (non-standard since 2012)

Swedish

Noun

letter

  1. indefinite plural of lett
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