letter

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a written message addressed to a person or organization

   mailed an indignant letter to the editor

2. 2
   noun

   an award earned by participation in a school sport

   I won letters in three sports.

3. 3
   noun

   the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech

   Their grandmother taught them their letters.

4. 4
   noun

   a strictly literal interpretation, as distinct from the intention

   I followed instructions to the letter.

5. 5
   noun

   A symbol in an alphabet.

   There are twenty-six letters in the English alphabet.

6. 6
   noun

   A written or printed communication, usually defined as longer and more formal than a note. (Sometimes specifically one that is on paper.)

   I wrote a letter to my sister about my life.

7. 7
   noun

   The literal meaning of something, as distinguished from its intended and remoter meaning (the spirit).

   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.

8. 8
   noun

   Literature.

   Benjamin Franklin was multiskilled – a scientist, politician and a man of letters.

Etymology

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.