1 a message that is written down or printed on paper and usually put in an envelope and sent to sb:
a business / thank-you letter * a letter of complaint / sympathy * (BrE) to post a letter * (AmE) to mail a letter * There's a letter for you from your mother. * You will be notified by letter.
HELPNOTE You will find compounds ending in letter at their place in the alphabet.
2 a written or printed sign representing a sound used in speech:
'B' is the second letter of the alphabet. * Write your name in capital / block letters.
3 (AmE) a sign in the shape of a letter that is sewn onto clothes to show that a person plays in a school or college sports team
IDIOMS
the letter of the law (often disapproving) the exact words of a law or rule rather than its general meaning:
They insist on sticking to the letter of the law. * We might be guilty of slightly bending the letter of the law.
to the letter exactly what sb/sth says, paying attention to every detail:
I followed your instructions to the letter.
Part of speech: verb
1 [usuallypassive] to give a letter to sth as part of a series or list:
[VN-N] Curiously, the stars lettered Alpha and Beta are relatively faint. [also VN]
2 [VN] [usuallypassive] ~ sth (in sth) to print, paint, sew, etc. letters onto sth:
a black banner lettered in white
3 [V] (AmE) to receive a letter made of cloth that you sew onto your clothes for playing in a school or college sports team
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for letter is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is letter a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, letter is tagged as noun.
Does letter appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — letter appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
