Letter

Definition of Letter

Let´ter Pronunciation: lĕt´tẽr

One who lets or permits; one who lets anything for hire.

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.

And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew.

- Luke xxiii. 38.

A written or printed communication; a message expressed in intelligible characters on something adapted to conveyance, as paper, parchment, etc.; an epistle.

The style of letters ought to be free, easy, and natural.

- Walsh.

A writing; an inscription.

None could expound what this letter meant.

- Chaucer.

Verbal expression; literal statement or meaning; exact signification or requirement.

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.

I broke the letter of it to keep the sense.

- Tennyson.

(Print.) A single type; type, collectively; a style of type.

Under these buildings . . . was the king's printing house, and that famous letter so much esteemed.

- Evelyn.

Learning; erudition; as, a man of letters.

A letter; an epistle.

(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.

Dead 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a part of it are in such a position (indicated by a particular combination of the letters) as to permit the bolt to be withdrawn.

A strange lock that opens with AMEN.

- Beau. & Fl.

v. t.

To impress with letters; to mark with letters or words; as, a book gilt and lettered.

[imp. & p. p. Lettered (-tẽrd); p. pr. & vb. n. Lettering.]

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, 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, matter, memorandum, minuscule, missive, musical notation, newspaper post, nick, nonfiction, notation, 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, small cap, small capital, special delivery, special handling, spell out, stamp, stem, strictly, surface mail, syllabary, 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

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Let-alone
Let-off
Let-up
Letch
Letchy
Lete
Leten
Lethal
Lethality
Lethargic
Lethargize
Lethargy
Lethe
Lethean
Letheed
Letheon
Letheonize
Lethiferous
Lethy
Lette
-Letter-
letter bomb
Letter book
Letter box
Letter carrier
Letter cutter
Letter lock
Letter of credit
letter-bomb
letter-perfect
lettercard
Lettered
Letterer
Lettergram
Lettering
Letterless
Lettern
Letterpress
Letters dimissory
Letters missive
Letters of horning

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