'Letter' definitions:
Definition of 'letter'
From: WordNet
noun
A written message addressed to a person or organization; "mailed an indignant letter to the editor" [syn: letter, missive]
noun
The conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech; "his grandmother taught him his letters" [syn: letter, letter of the alphabet, alphabetic character]
noun
Owner who lets another person use something (housing usually) for hire
noun
A strictly literal interpretation (as distinct from the intention); "he followed instructions to the letter"; "he obeyed the letter of the law"
noun
An award earned by participation in a school sport; "he won letters in three sports" [syn: letter, varsity letter]
verb
Win an athletic letter
verb
Set down or print with letters
verb
Mark letters on or mark with letters
Definition of 'Letter'
From: GCIDE
- Letter \Let"ter\ (l[e^]t"t[~e]r), n. [From Let to permit.] One who lets or permits; one who lets anything for hire. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Letter'
From: GCIDE
- Letter \Let"ter\, n. [From Let to hinder.] One who retards or hinders. [Archaic.] [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Letter'
From: GCIDE
- Letter \Let"ter\, n. [OE. lettre, F. lettre, OF. letre, fr. L. littera, litera, a letter; pl., an epistle, a writing, literature, fr. linere, litum, to besmear, to spread or rub over; because one of the earliest modes of writing was by graving the characters upon tablets smeared over or covered with wax. --Pliny, xiii. 11. See Liniment, and cf. Literal.]
- 1. A mark or character used as the representative of a sound, or of an articulation of the human organs of speech; a first element of written language. [1913 Webster]
- And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew. --Luke xxiii. 38. [1913 Webster]
- 2. A written or printed communication; a message expressed in intelligible characters on something adapted to conveyance, as paper, parchment, etc.; an epistle. [1913 Webster]
- The style of letters ought to be free, easy, and natural. --Walsh. [1913 Webster]
- 3. A writing; an inscription. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
- None could expound what this letter meant. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
- 4. Verbal expression; literal statement or meaning; exact signification or requirement. [1913 Webster]
- We must observe the letter of the law, without doing violence to the reason of the law and the intention of the lawgiver. --Jer. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
- I broke the letter of it to keep the sense. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
- 5. (Print.) A single type; type, collectively; a style of type. [1913 Webster]
- Under these buildings . . . was the king's printing house, and that famous letter so much esteemed. --Evelyn. [1913 Webster]
- 6. pl. Learning; erudition; as, a man of letters. [1913 Webster]
- 7. pl. A letter; an epistle. [Obs.] --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
- 8. (Teleg.) A telegram longer than an ordinary message sent at rates lower than the standard message rate in consideration of its being sent and delivered subject to priority in service of regular messages. Such telegrams are called by the Western Union Company day letters, or night letters according to the time of sending, and by The Postal Telegraph Company day lettergrams, or {night lettergrams}. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
- Dead letter, Drop letter, etc. See under Dead, Drop, etc.
- Letter book, a book in which copies of letters are kept.
- Letter box, a box for the reception of letters to be mailed or delivered.
- Letter carrier, a person who carries letters; a postman; specif., an officer of the post office who carries letters to the persons to whom they are addressed, and collects letters to be mailed.
- Letter cutter, one who engraves letters or letter punches.
- Letter lock, a lock that can not be opened when fastened, unless certain movable lettered rings or disks forming a part of it are in such a position (indicated by a particular combination of the letters) as to permit the bolt to be withdrawn. [1913 Webster]
- A strange lock that opens with AMEN. --Beau. & Fl.
- Letter paper, paper for writing letters on; especially, a size of paper intermediate between note paper and foolscap. See Paper.
- Letter punch, a steel punch with a letter engraved on the end, used in making the matrices for type.
- Letters of administration (Law), the instrument by which an administrator or administratrix is authorized to administer the goods and estate of a deceased person.
- Letter of attorney, Letter of credit, etc. See under Attorney, Credit, etc.
- Letter of license, a paper by which creditors extend a debtor's time for paying his debts.
- Letters close or Letters clause (Eng. Law.), letters or writs directed to particular persons for particular purposes, and hence closed or sealed on the outside; -- distinguished from letters patent. --Burrill.
- Letters of orders (Eccl.), a document duly signed and sealed, by which a bishop makes it known that he has regularly ordained a certain person as priest, deacon, etc.
- Letters patent, Letters overt, or Letters open (Eng. Law), a writing executed and sealed, by which power and authority are granted to a person to do some act, or enjoy some right; as, letters patent under the seal of England. The common commercial patent is a derivative form of such a right.
- Letter-sheet envelope, a stamped sheet of letter paper issued by the government, prepared to be folded and sealed for transmission by mail without an envelope.
- Letters testamentary (Law), an instrument granted by the proper officer to an executor after probate of a will, authorizing him to act as executor.
- Letter writer. (a) One who writes letters. (b) A machine for copying letters. (c) A book giving directions and forms for the writing of letters. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Letter'
From: GCIDE
Definition of 'Letter'
From: Easton
- Letter in Rom. 2:27, 29 means the outward form. The "oldness of the letter" (7:6) is a phrase which denotes the old way of literal outward obedience to the law as a system of mere external rules of conduct. In 2 Cor. 3:6, "the letter" means the Mosaic law as a written law. (See WRITING.)
Synonyms of 'letter'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- 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,
- PP,
- precisely,
- prefigurement,
- presentment,
- print,
- printed matter,
- printing,
- printout,
- production,
- projection,
- RD,
- reading matter,
- realization,
- recension,
- registered mail,
- release,
- rendering,
- rendition,
- reply,
- report,
- representation,
- rescript,
- RFD,
- 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
Words containing 'Letter'
- Lettered,
- Letterer,
- Lettering,
- letters,
- to the letter,
- Black letter,
- Bullantic letters,
- Canine letter,
- Canonical letters,
- Capital letter,
- Dead letter,
- Dominical letter,
- Double letter,
- Drop letter,
- Excrescent letter,
- Extended letter,
- Inferior letter,
- Letter book,
- Letter box,
- Letter carrier,
- Letter cutter,
- Letter lock,
- Letter of attorney,
- Letter of credit,
- Letter of license,
- Letter paper,
- Letter punch,
- Letter writer,
- Letters clause,
- Letters close,
- Letters dimissory,
- Letters missive,
- Letters of administration,
- Letters of horning,
- Letters of marque,
- Letters of orders,
- Letters open,
- Letters overt,
- Letters patent,
- Letters testamentary,
- Love letter,
- Movable letter,
- Night letter,
- Nundinal letter,
- Paragogic letters,
- Pythagorean letter,
- Registered letter,
- Republic of letters,
- Sea letter,
- Ship letter,
- Small letter,
- Sunday letter,
- Superior letter,
- Text letter,
- Threatening letters,
- air letter,
- airmail letter,
- block letter,
- business letter,
- chain letter,
- cover letter,
- covering letter,
- crank letter,
- day letters,
- encyclical letter,
- fan letter,
- form letter,
- investment letter,
- letter bomb,
- letter bond,
- letter case,
- letter of intent,
- letter of jeremiah,
- letter of marque,
- letter of the alphabet,
- letter opener,
- letter security,
- letter stock,
- letter telegram,
- man of letters,
- market letter,
- night letters,
- open letter,
- or Circular letter,
- personal letter,
- polyphonic letter,
- roman letters,
- runic letter,
- scarlet letter,
- short letter,
- varsity letter,
- Black-letter,
- Letters of marque and reprisal,
- Red-letter,
- Small capital letters,
- circular letter of credit,
- commercial letter of credit,
- cycle of the Sunday letter,
- doctor of humane letters,
- letter of mark and reprisal,
- letter-bomb,
- letter-perfect,
- news-letter,
- traveler's letter of credit,
- traveller's letter of credit,
- Letter-sheet envelope,
- Red-letter day,
- four-letter word,
- lower-case letter,
- upper-case letter,
- Tel-el-Amarna letters,
- four-letter anglo-saxon word