Dictionary Definition
letter
Noun
1 a written message addressed to a person or
organization; "mailed an indignant letter to the editor" [syn:
missive]
2 the conventional characters of the alphabet
used to represent speech; "his grandmother taught him his letters"
[syn: letter
of the alphabet, alphabetic
character]
3 a strictly literal interpretation (as distinct
from the intention); "he followed instructions to the letter"; "he
obeyed the letter of the law"
4 an award earned by participation in a school
sport; "he won letters in three sports" [syn: varsity
letter]
5 owner who lets another person use something
(housing usually) for hire
Verb
1 win an athletic letter
2 set down or print with letters
3 mark letters on or mark with letters
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
< lettre < littera < Etruscan.Pronunciation
Noun
Derived terms
- chain letter
- Dear John letter
- fan letter
- French letter
- letter bomb
- letter box
- letterhead
- letter of comfort
- letterman
- love letter
- scarlet letter
Related terms
Translations
letter of the alphabet
- Albanian: shkronjë
- Alemannic: Buchstabe
- Arabic: (ħarf) , p
- trreq Armenian
- Asturian: lletra
- Azerbaijani: hərf
- trreq Basque
- Belarusian: літара
- Breton: lizherenn
- Bulgarian: буква
- Catalan: lletra ^, caràcter
- Chinese: 字母 (zìmǔ)
- Chuvash: саспалли
- Croatian: slovo
- Czech: písmeno
- Danish: bogstav n c
- Dutch: letter, karakter
- Esperanto: litero
- Estonian: täht, kirjatäht, aabe, pookstav
- Faroese: bókstavur, stavur
- Finnish: kirjain, aakkonen
- French: lettre, caractère
- Galician: letra
- Georgian: ასო (aso)
- German: Buchstabe
- Greek: γράμμα
- Haitian: lèt
- Hebrew: אות (ot)
- trreq Hindi
- Hungarian: betű
- Icelandic: bókstafur, stafur
- Indonesian: huruf
- Irish: litir
- Italian: lettera, carattere
- Japanese: 文字
- Kabyle: asekkil
- Khmer: (dtūə əksor)
- Korean: 문자
- Kurdish:
- Sorani: پیت
- trreq Lao
- Latin: littera
- Latvian: burts
- Lithuanian: raidė
- Lojban: lerfu
- Lower Sorbian: pismik
- Low Saxon: Bookstaav
- Macedonian: буква
- Malayalam: അക്ഷരം
- trreq Maltese
- Marathi: अक्शर (akshar), अक्षर (akṣra)
- trreq Mongolian
- Nepali: (akshyar)
- Norwegian: bokstav
- Ossetic: дамгъæ
- trreq Persian
- Polish: litera
- Portuguese: letra, caractér
- Romanian: literă, caracter
- Russian: буква
- trreq Sanskrit
- Scottish Gaelic: litir
- Serbian: slovo , bukva (archaic)/(poetic)
- Sicilian: littra
- Slovak: písmeno
- Slovene: črka
- Spanish: letra, carácter
- Swahili: herufi
- Swedish: bokstav
- Tamil: எழுத்து (ezhuttu)
- Telugu: అక్షరం (aksharaM)
- Thai: (dtua àksŏn), (àksŏn), (àkkàrà)
- Turkish: harf
- Ukrainian: буква, літера
- Uzbek: harf
- trreq Vietnamese
- Yiddish: אות (os) or
written message
- Albanian: letër
- Arabic:
- Armenian: նամակ
- Azerbaijani: məktub
- Basque: eskutitz
- Bulgarian: писмо
- Catalan: carta
- Chinese: 信 (xìn), 函件 (hán jiàn), 书信 (shūxìn)
- Croatian: pismo ^
- Czech: dopis
- Danish: brev
- Dutch: brief
- Esperanto: letero
- Estonian: kiri
- Faroese: bræv
- Finnish: kirje
- French: lettre
- Georgian: წერილი (ts‘erili), ბარათი (barat‘i)
- German: Brief
- Greek: επιστολή , γράμμα
- Hebrew: מכתב (mikhtav)
- Hindi: पत्र, चिट्टी
- Hungarian: levél
- Icelandic: bréf, sendibréf
- Indonesian: surat
- Irish: litir
- Italian: lettera
- Japanese: 手紙 (てがみ, tegamí)
- Khmer: (sombot)
- Korean: 편지
- Kurdish:
- Sorani: نامه
- Latin: epistula
- Latvian: vēstule
- Lithuanian: laiškas
- Lojban: xatra
- Marathi: पत्र (patra)
- trreq Mongolian
- Nepali: पत्र (patra)
- Norwegian: brev
- trreq Persian
- Polish: list
- Portuguese: carta
- Quechua: chaski qillqa
- Romanian: scrisoare
- Russian: письмо (pis’mó)
- Scottish Gaelic: litir
- Serbian: писмо
- Slovak: list
- Slovene: pismo
- Spanish: carta
- Swahili: barua
- Swedish: brev
- Tamil: கடுதாசி (kakitham)
- Telugu: ఉత్తరము (uttaramu), జాబు (jaabu)
- Tetum: karta, surat
- Thai: (jòt măai)
- Turkish: mektup
- Ukrainian: лист
- trreq Vietnamese
- Yiddish: בריוו (briv)
Verb
- to print, inscribe, or paint letters on something.
Dutch
Pronunciation
Noun
Derived terms
Swedish
Noun
letter- sv-noun-form-indef-pl lett
Extensive Definition
Letter and similar can mean:
- Letter (alphabet), a grapheme, part of an alphabet, abjad, abugida, or syllabary
- Letter (message), correspondence, a written message
- Letter (paper size), the letter-size paper
- "Letters" can also mean literature, as in "arts and letters"
- Letterman, recipient of an award ("letter") given to an interscholastic and/or intercollegiate student of merit in a sport, choir or band (also see varsity letter)
Literature
- Letters, by Cicero, included in Harvard Classics
- Letters, by Pliny the Younger, included in Harvard Classics
- LETTERS, a novel by John Barth
Entertainment
- Letters, an album by Jimmy Webb
- "The Letter", a song originally by The Box Tops
- Letters from Iwo Jima, a war film about the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of Japanese Imperial soldiers
- Rehearsal letter in an orchestral score.
- Letter (game), a 1970s computer game.
Places
- Letter, Aberdeenshire, is a settlement in North-east Scotland
- Lettere is a town in the province of Naples, Italy
letter in Spanish: Letra
letter in French: Lettre
letter in Italian: Lettera
letter in Hungarian: Levél
letter in Japanese: Letter
letter in Portuguese: Letra
(desambiguação)
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
PP,
RD, RFD, accurately, acknowledgment, advice, airmail, alphabet, alphabetize, answer, art, article, ascender, autograph, back, bastard type, beard, belles-lettres, belly, bevel, billet, black letter, blueprint, body, book post, brainchild, business letter,
cap, capital, capitalize, case, character, charactering, characterization,
chart, chit, choreography, communication, communique, composition, computer
printout, conventional representation, copy, correspondence, counter, culture, dance notation,
delineation,
demonstration,
depiction, depictment, descender, diagram, direct mail,
direct-mail selling, dispatch, document, draft, drama, drawing, edited version,
em, embassy, en, engrossment, epistle, erudition, essay, exactly, exemplification,
express, face, fair copy, fat-faced type,
favor, feet, fiction, figuration, final draft,
finished version, first draft, flimsy, font, fourth-class mail, frank, groove, halfpenny post, hieroglyphic, holograph, iconography, ideogram, illustration, imagery, imaging, initial, inscribe, italic, junk mail, learning, letter post, letters, ligature, limning, line, literae scriptae, literally, literary artefact,
literary production, literatim, literature, logogram, logograph, logotype, lower case, lucubration, mail, mail-order selling, mailing
list, majuscule,
manuscript, map, mark, matter, memorandum, message, minuscule, missive, musical notation,
newspaper post, nick,
nonfiction, notation, note, opus, original, paper, parcel post, parchment, penscript, pi, pica, pictogram, picturization, piece, piece of writing, plan, play, pneumatogram, poem, point, portraiture, portrayal, post, post day, precisely, prefigurement, presentment, print, printed matter, printing, printout, production, projection, reading matter,
realization,
recension, registered
mail, release, rendering, rendition, reply, report, representation, rescript, roman, rural delivery, rural free
delivery, sans serif, schema, scholarship, score, screed, scrip, script, scrive, scroll, sea mail, seapost, second draft, shank, shoulder, sic, sign, small cap, small capital,
special delivery, special handling, spell out, stamp, stem, strictly, surface mail,
syllabary, symbol, tablature, telegram, the written word,
thus, to the letter,
transcribe, transcript, transcription, transliterate, type, type body, type class, type
lice, typecase,
typeface, typefounders, typefoundry, typescript, upper case,
verbatim, version, word, word for word, work, write, writing