letter

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A written or printed message that you send to someone, usually by mail.

   I wrote a letter to my grandmother last week.

2. 2
   noun

   A written symbol that represents a sound in a language, such as A, B, or C.

   There are twenty-six letters in the English alphabet.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Letter entered English from Old French in the 13th century and ultimately comes from Latin littera or litera. The Latin word meant both a character of the alphabet and a written communication, and English inherited both senses.

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

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary