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Letter

Definition: Letter

Letter

Noun

1. A written message addressed to a person or organization; "wrote an indignant letter to the editor".

2. The conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech; "his grandmother taught him his letters".

3. A strictly literal interpretation (as distinct from the intention); "he followed instructions to the letter"; "he obeyed the letter of the law".

4. An award earned by participation in a school sport; "he won letters in three sports".

5. Owner who lets another person use something (housing usually) for hire.

Verb

1. Win an athletic letter, in sports.

2. Set down or print with letters.

3. Mark letters on or mark with letters.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "letter" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Letter

DomainDefinition

Bible

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.). Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.

Computing

A graphic character that, when used alone or combined with others, primarily represents, in a written language, one or more sound elements of a spoken language, but excluding diacritical marks used alone and punctuation marks. Source: European Union. (references)

Dream Interpretation

To dream that you see a registered letter, foretells that some money matters will disrupt long-established relations.
For a young woman to dream that she receives such a letter, intimates that she will be offered a competency, but it will not be on strictly legal, or moral grounds; others may play towards her a dishonorable part.
To the lover, this bears heavy presentments of disagreeable mating. His sweetheart will covet other gifts than his own.
To dream of an anonymous letter, denotes that you will receive injury from an unsuspected source.
To write one, foretells that you will be jealous of a rival, whom you admit to be your superior.
To dream of getting letters bearing unpleasant news, denotes difficulties or illness. If the news is of a joyous character, you will have many things to be thankful for. If the letter is affectionate, but is written on green, or colored, paper, you will be slighted in love and business. Despondency will envelop you. Blue ink, denotes constancy and affection, also bright fortune.
Red colors in a letter, imply estrangements through suspicion and jealousy, but this may be overcome by wise maneuvering of the suspected party.
If a young woman dreams that she receives a letter from her lover and places it near her heart, she will be worried very much by a good-looking rival. Truthfulness is often rewarded with jealousy.
If you fail to read the letter, you will lose something either in a business or social way.
Letters nearly always bring worry.
To have your letter intercepted, rival enemies are working to defame you.
To dream of trying to conceal a letter from your sweetheart or wife, intimates that you are interested in unworthy occupations.
To dream of a letter with a black border, signifies distress and the death of some relative.
To receive a letter written on black paper with white ink, denotes that gloom and disappointment will assail you, and friendly interposition will render small relief. If the letter passes between husband and wife, it means separation under sensational charges. If lovers, look for quarrels and threats of suicide. To business people, it denotes enviousness and covetousness.
To dream that you write a letter, denotes that you will be hasty in condemning some one on suspicion, and regrets will follow.
A torn letter, indicates that hopeless mistakes may ruin your reputation.
To receive a letter by hand, denotes that you are acting ungenerously towards your companions or sweetheart, and you also are not upright in your dealings.
To dream often of receiving a letter from a friend, foretells his arrival, or you will hear from him by letter or otherwise. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....

Post & Telecom

There is no single definition:users mean an individual readable communication which can be sent by different means, referring to the personal or business affairs of the sender and/or the addressee; in the sense of the letter mail which includes printed papers and small packets, postal administrations sometimes refer to the UPU definition which covers all postal communications weighing up to 2kg. Source: European Union. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Alphabet

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters--basic written symbols--each of which roughly represents or represented historically a phoneme of a spoken language. This as distinguished from other writing systems such as ideograms, in which symbols represent complete ideas, and syllabaries, in which each symbol represents a syllable. The word alphabet itself is derived from alpha and beta, the first two symbols of the Greek alphabet.

Among alphabets, one may distinguish the older abjads that only recorded consonants, and the newer alphabet of the Greek type called simply alphabet and the abugida.

Each language may establish certain general rules that govern the association between letters and phonemes, but, depending on the language, these rules may or may not be consistently followed. In a perfectly phonological alphabet, the phonemes and letters would correspond perfectly in two directions: a writer could predict the spelling of a word given its pronunciation, and a speaker could predict the pronunciation of a word given its spelling. However, languages often evolve independently of their writing systems, and writing systems have been borrowed for languages they were not designed for, so the degree to which letters of an alphabet correspond to phonemes of a language varies greatly from one language to another and even within a single language.

Languages may fail to achieve a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds in any of several ways:

National languages generally elect to address the problem of dialects by simply associating the alphabet with the national standard. However, with international languages with wide variations in its dialects, such as English, it would be impossible to represent the language in all its variations with a single phonetic alphabet.

Some national languages like Finnish and Spanish have a very regular spelling system with close to a one-to-one correspondence between letters and phonemes. The Italian language has no verb corresponding to 'spell:' scriversi ('is written') suffices, because a correct pronunciation exactly corresponds to a correct orthography. In standard Spanish, it is possible to predict the pronunciation of a word from its spelling, but not vice versa; this is because certain phonemes can be represented in more than one way, but a given letter is consistently represented. French, with its silent letters and its heavy use of nasal vowels and elision, may seem to lack much correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, but its rules on pronunciation are actually consistent and predictable with a fair degree of accuracy. At the other extreme, however, are languages such as English, where the spelling of many words simply has to be memorized as they do not correspond to sounds in a consistent way, because the Great Vowel Shift in English occurred after orthography was established. However, even English has general rules that predict pronunciation from spelling, and these rules are successful a majority of the time.

The first alphabet that has been recovered was developed in Ugarit (in modern Syria), about 1500 BCE, initially to represent the sounds of a Semitic language using cuneiform. It was inherited by the Canaanites (see early Semitic alphabet) and Phoenicians, and nearly all subsequent alphabets are derived from it or inspired by it, directly or indirectly. Of special note among its descendants is the Greek alphabet, derived from Minoan Linear B (used as a syllabary) with the innovation of separate symbols for vowels (Semitic didn't need them). Most subsequent alphabets with vowels are derived from the early Greek alphabets. The most popular alphabet in use today is a modern 26-letter version of the Roman alphabet, used by the English language and most European languages. Writing without using a particular letter or letters is a type of constrained writing called a lipogram. In modern linguistic usage, the term Latin alphabet is usually used to refer to the modern derivations from the alphabet used by the Romans (i.e. the Roman alphabet).

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

An alphabet also serves to establish an order among letters that can be used for sorting entries in lists, called collating. Note that the order does not have to be constant among different languages using this alphabet; for examples see Latin alphabet, "Collating in other languages".

In recent years the Unicode initiative has attempted to collate most of the world's known writing systems into a single character encoding. As well as its primary purpose of standardising computer processing of non-Roman scripts, the Unicode project has provided a focus for script-related scholarship.

The sounds of speech of all languages of the world can be written by a rather small universal phonetic alphabet. A standard for this is the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The smallest known alphabet is the Rotokas alphabet, which contains only 11 letters. The largest known non-ideographic alphabet is Armenian with 39 letters. (Syllabaries typically include many more symbols.)

List of alphabets

Special alphabets

See also:

External links

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Epistles

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The word epistle is from the Greek word epistolos which means a 'letter' or written (and mailed) correspondence. Today in common usage the word usually describes a specific group of books in the New Testament that were letters, although "epistle" can also refer to other letters as well. Calling a letter an "epistle" does not by itself imply that the letter is part of the New Testament, inspired, or even that it is necessarily religious in nature.

New Testament Epistles

The epistles of the New Testament are Christian writings of Apostles to churches in particular parts of the world. The most prolific apostle to write was Paul.

There are epistles that are written to particular areas, and general epistles that are written to groups. Paul wrote more epistles to particular churches of a geographical area, as well as personal letters to Timothy and Titus. Peter, John, James, Jude, and the writer of Hebrews wrote general letters to the church in general. Sometimes these epistles are divided into subgroups. For instance, the "prison epistles" are the ones written by Paul while he was in prison, while the "pastoral epistles" are the letters to Timothy and Titus, since they contain advice about providing pastoral care to their churches.

Epistles of certain apostolic fathers

These are letters written by some very early Christian leaders, in the first or second century, which are not part of the New Testament. They are generally considered to form part of the basis of Christian tradition. The word epistle is used partly because these were all written in Greek, in a time period close to when the epistles of the New Testament were written.

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Land letter

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Land Letter was a letter sent to President George W. Bush by evangelical Christian leaders on October 3, 2002 which outlined their theological support for a just war pre-emptive invasion of Iraq. The letter was written by Richard D. Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. It was co-signed by Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries, Bill Bright, chairman of Campus Crusade for Christ, James Kennedy, president of Corel Ridge Ministries, and Carl D. Herbster, president of the American Association of Christian Schools.

The letter outlined how a pre-emptive invasion of Iraq met the criteria of traditional 'just war' theory:

Other than the evangelical wing of the Christian church in America, few if any other Christian bodies worldwide were able to consider the facts known in October 2002 and derive from them a justification for an invasion of Iraq.

External Link

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Latin alphabet

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, as used by the English language consists of the following characters:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

The alphabet used for the Latin language had no J, U, or W.

History

The Latin alphabet derives mainly from the Etruscan alphabet. According to Hammarström (in Jensen 521), the letters for B, D, O, X hail from a Southern Italian Greek alphabet. However, there are Etruscan abecedaria with B, D, O, X (Sampson 108). Rix (203) claims that the sound values of those letters in Latin are to be attributed to Greek influence, the letters themselves were probably all present when the Romans took over the alphabet from the Etruscans (Wachter 33).

It is uncontested that the alphabet is mainly of Etruscan origin. The sound value of C proves that clearly. Etruscan had no voiced plosives, so this symbol - derived from the Greek gamma - came to stand for the unvoiced /k/ in Etruscan - as later in Latin. Jensen (521) notes that the letters C, K, Q were originally used in Latin according to Etruscan usage: C in front of /e, i/; K in front of /a/; Q in front of /u, o/. The letters thus stand for different allophones of /k/ (in the case of Latin, also /g/ and probably the phonemes /k_w/ and /g _w/ in the case of QU and GU). These spelling rules are due to the names of the letters: gamma or gemma; kappa; qoppa or quppa (Wachter 15). In Etruscan there was no /o/, so Q was used both in front of /o/ and /u/ in Latin. Y and Z were later additions taken from the Greek alphabet. G was created by Spurius Carvilius Ruga (who flourished around 230 BC) as a modification of C (Sampson 109). F (digamma) stood for /w/ in both Etruscan and Latin, but the Romans simplified the FH-/f/combination to F /f/. The semi-vowels /w, j/ and the vowels /u, u:, i, i:/ were written with the same letters, namely V and I respectively.

There was no 'U'; instead, there was the semi-vowel 'V'. There was no 'W', although 'V' was pronounced as the modern English 'W'. They didn't have the letter 'J', instead they had the semi-vowel 'I'.

Compare

See also

Use in other languages

In the course of its history, the Latin alphabet was used for new languages, and therefore, some new letters and diacritics were created, e.g.: Please see 'Alphabets derived from the Latin' for a more complete list.

W is a letter made up from two U's. It was added in late Roman times to represent a Germanic sound. U and J were originally not distinguished from V and I respectively. In Old English, thorn þ, edh ð and wynn ƿ - a Runic letter - were added. In modern Icelandic, thorn and edh are still used. The additional letters added in German are special presentations of earlier ligature forms (ae → ä, ue → ü or ſss → ß). French adds the circumflex to record elided consonants that were present in earlier forms and are often still present in the modern English cognate forms (Old French hostel → French hôtel = English hotel or Late Latin pasta → Middle French paste → French pâte and English paste).

Some Slavic languages use the latin alphabet rather than the Cyrillic. Among these, Polish uses a variety of ligatures with z to represent special phonetic values, and a dark l - ł - for a sound similar to w. Czech uses diacritics as in Dvořák. The Slavic regions which stayed with the Orthodox church generally use Cyrillic instead which is much closer to the Greek alphabet. Hausa uses three additional consonants: ɓ, ɗ and ƙ.

Collating in other languages

Alphabets derived from the Latin have varying collating rules:

References

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Latin alphabet."

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Letter

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A letter is a written message. Letters are usually intended to be received by someone far away (contrast with note). Before widespread availability of typewriters and computers, letters were always written by hand. Nowadays that is still done, mainly for informal letters. The term letter is also used for email messages with a formal letterlike format.

A letter is also a character of the alphabet.

The letter is also a standard US paper size.

See also:

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Mu (letter)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Mu (Μ μ) is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet and has a numeric value of 40.

The lower-case letter μ is used as the symbol for:

See also:

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Phi (letter)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Phi (Φ φ) is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet and has a numeric value of 500.

The lower-case letter φ is used as a symbol for:

The upper-case letter Φ is used as a symbol for: See also other things named phi, Phi phenomenon.

See also:

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Pi (letter)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Pi (Π π) is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet and has a numeric value of 80. In words it is pronounced /p/.

The upper-case letter Π is used as a symbol for:

The lower-case letter π is used as a symbol for: See also:

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Script

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

  1. A writing system
  2. A manuscript, scroll
  3. A draft for a book
  4. The dialog and instructions for a play, film (see screenplay) or comic book or strip
  5. A program written in one of the scripting programming languages

    Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Script."

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Synonyms: Letter

Synonyms: alphabetic character (n), letter of the alphabet (n), missive (n), varsity letter (n). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Letter

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Correspondence

Noun: correspondence, letter, epistle, note, billet, post card, missive, circular, favor, billet-doux; chit, chitty, letter card, picture post card; postal, card; despatch; dispatch; bulletin, these presents; rescript, rescription; post; (messenger).

Indication

Badge, criterion; countercheck, countermark, countersign, counterfoil; duplicate, tally; label, ticket, billet, letter, counter, check, chip, chop; dib; totem; tessera, card, bill; witness, voucher; stamp; cacher; trade mark, Hall mark.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Letter

English words defined with "letter": air letter, airmail letterblock letter, business letterCanine letter, chain letter, commercial letter of credit, cover letter, covering letter, crank letterdead letter, Dominical letterencyclical letter, Excrescent letter, Extended letterform letterinvestment letterLetter cutter, letter of intent, Letter punch, love letterMovable letteropen letterpersonal letter, polyphonic letterRegistered letterscarlet letter, Ship letter, short letter, small letter, Sunday letterText letter, traveler's letter of credit, traveller's letter of creditupper-case letter. (references)
Specialty definitions using "letter": Acceptance Letter Of Credit, advance letterBayer letter, Biforked Letter of the GreeksCollection Letter, commitment letter, Confirmed Letter of CreditDeferred Payment Letter of Credit, Discrepancy Letter of Creditirregular uppercase letter, Irrevocable Letter of CreditLacedaemonian Letter, Letter of Indemnity, Letter of Licence, Letter of Orders, Letter of Pythagoras, Letter of Safe Conduct, Letter of UriahRestricted Letter of Credit, Revolving Letter of CreditSamian Letter, Snarling Letter, Standby Letter of CreditTransmittal LetterUnconfirmed Letter Of Credit, Unrestricted Letter Of Credit. (references)
Etymologies containing "letter": Ypsiliform. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Letter" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Dutch (letter), Frisian (letter), German (letter), Italian (letter).

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Modern Usage: Letter

DomainUsage

Screenplays

The symbol on the left is not a letter, sir (Being John Malkovich; writing credit: Charlie Kaufman)

Lieutenant Dan sent me a letter, got us invested in some fruit company (Forrest Gump; writing credit: Eric Roth)

I don't know about you, but I intend on writing a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about all of this (Titanic; writing credit: James Cameron)

Learn how to write a letter or something (Dr. Dolittle 2; writing credit: Larry Levin)

I heard a rumor those two German couriers were carrying letter of transit (Casablanca; writing credit: Murray Burnett; Joan Alison)

Lyrics

And what I can't say in a letter (Sweet Dreams; performing artist: Air Supply)

YOU CAN WRITE IT IN A LETTER BABE (Never Ever; performing artist: All Saints)

Pieces of note fall down but the letter said (Good; performing artist: Better Than Ezra)

I'm gonna write a little letter, (Roll Over Beethoven; performing artist: Chuck Berry)

Someone found a letter you wrote me, on the radio (ON THE RADIO; performing artist: Donna Summer)

Clever

I refused to attend his funeral. But I wrote a very nice letter explaining that I approved of it. (references; author: Mark Twain)

I did not attend his funeral; but I wrote a nice letter saying I approved of it. [About a politician who had recently died] (references; author: Mark Twain)

Little differences--like a letter in a word--make all the difference in the world. (references; author: unknown)

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable. (references; author: unknown)

If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"? One thousand. (references; author: unknown)

Tongue Twisters

Larry sent the latter a letter later. (references; author: unknown)

Movie/TV Titles

Marriage and Other Four Letter Words (1974)

The Letter People (1974)

Love Is a Four Letter Word (1973)

The Kremlin Letter (1970)

Take a Letter... From A to Z (1967)

Song Titles

Letter, The (performing artist: The Box Tops)

I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter (performing artist: Madeleine Peyroux)

Take A Letter Maria (performing artist: R.B. Greaves)

The Letter (performing artist: The Box Tops)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Letter

DomainTitle

References

  • The World Market for Letter Cards, Plain Postcards, and Correspondence Cards Made of Paper or Paperboard: A 2004 Global Trade Perspective (reference)

    (more reference examples)

  

Books

  • Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Mks:: Test # Acknowledgment Letter, Letter, Instruction Sheet, Answer Sheet, Syllabus and Multiple Choice quest (reference)

  • Linda's Air Mail Letter (reference)

  • The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients (reference)

  • Paws for Alarm (St. Martin's Dead Letter Mystery) (reference)

  • Letter Art: Based on Alphabet Designs by Becky Higgins (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Periodicals

  

Theater & Movies

  

Music

  

High Tech

  • JVC Video Letter Kit (L-KIT1B) (reference)

  • Polaroid Photo Glossy Letter Size Paper for Color Printers (reference)

  • Sima VHS-C Video Letter Kit (SVLKT) (reference)

  • 20-SHEET Letter Prem Semigloss Photo Paper for 1270-870-875DC 2000P (reference)

  • Ibico By GBC Clear Letter Laminating Pouches, Letter Size, 3 Mil, Pack Of 50 (reference)

    (more camera examples; more video game examples; more computer examples; more electronic examples; more software examples)

  

Consumer Goods

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Letter

Photos:
Letter

More pictures...

Illustrations:
Letter

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Computer Images:
Letter

More pictures...

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Photo Album: Letter

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

Caption: Letter to Mr. Chandler from Edison Saying, "We Now Have the Phonoplex Perfect"; West Orange, NJ; February 15, 1892; {14.001/106} (jpg).

U.S. American National Red Cross Hospital No. 5, Auteuil, France. : Bedridden patients, one writing a letter. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

[Shiela Parker holding an original letter from 1879]. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

Reading Letter of Commendation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to several members of the USS Squalus (SS-192) salvage unit, in his Navy Department offices, 16 September 1939. The others present are (from left to right): Commander Charles B. Momsen, USN; Chief Metalsmith J.H. McDonald, USN; Chief Torpedoman W.H. Squire, USN; Ship Fitter First Class H.H. Frye, USN; Torpedoman First Class J.W. Thompson, USN; Lieutenant Karl R. Wheland, USN; Commander Henry Hartly, USN, and Commander Allan R. McCann, USN. Credit: NAVY.

Reads a Letter of Commendation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to members of the USS Squalus (SS-192) salvage unit, in his Navy Department offices, 16 September 1939. Looking on are Commander Allan R. McCann, USN, (left) and Commander Charles B. Momsen, USN, (right). Credit: NAVY.

Harrison letter sheet. Credit: Library of Congress.

Letter from Thomas Jefferson, to Mr. Weightman, late Mayor of Washington. Credit: Library of Congress.

Two mother gooses and letter I. Credit: Library of Congress.

Singing man with round head and letter H. Credit: Library of Congress.

Strange case of the purloined letter. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Digital Photo Gallery: Letter
 

"Letter P" by Jay Mac
Commentary: "Letter P."
"Letter M" by Martijn Beks
Commentary: "More pic's at www.MBphoto.tk!."

Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

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Familiar Quotations: Letter

AuthorQuotation

Aristotle

Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.

Arthur Schopenhauer

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

Author Unknown

If a good face is a letter of recommendation, a good heart is a letter of credit.

Blaise Pascal

The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

Joseph Addison

But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour arts and letter, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind.

Lord Byron

Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.

Marcus T. Cicero

A letter does not blush.

Sir John A. Macdonald

Never write a letter if you can help it, and never destroy one!

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Historic Usage: Letter

AuthorDateQuotation

John Locke

1690

The people therefore, finding reason to be satisfied with these princes, whenever they acted without, or contrary to the letter of the law, acquiesced in what they did, and, without the least complaint, let them enlarge their prerogative as they pleased, judging rightly, that they did nothing herein to the prejudice of their laws, since they acted conformable to the foundation and end of all laws, the public good. (Second Treatise of Government)

US Constitution

1791

The president of the convention transmitted it to Congress, with a resolution stating how the proposed Federal Government should be put in operation, and an explanatory letter. (reference)

Marbury v. Madison

1803

The Secretary of State, being a person holding an office under the authority of the United States, is precisely within the letter of the description; and if this court is not authorized to issue a writ of mandamus to such an officer, it must be because the law is unconstitutional, and therefore incapable of conferring the authority, and assigning the duties which its words purport to confer and assign. (reference)

Brown v. Board of Education

1954

Their opponents, just as certainly, were antagonistic to both the letter and the spirit of the Amendments and wished them to have the most limited effect. (reference)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Letter

TitleAuthorQuote

Emma

Austen, Jane

But Jane, it seems, had a letter from them very lately, and not a word was said about it.

Tangled Tale

Carroll, Lewis

The Governor handed him the open letter.

Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Fantine withdrew and went once more to read over the letter on the stairs

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Joyce, James

Or he would write a letter for the priest to bring

Grapes of Wrath

Steinbeck, John

She took a letter from an envelope and dropped the trinkets in the envelope

Gulliver's Travels

Swift, Jonathan

At landing, I showed the custom house officers my letter from the King of Luggnagg to his Imperial Majesty

Walden

Thoreau, Henry David

I know not the first letter of the alphabet

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Letter

SubjectTopicQuote

Health

Reading a book, writing a letter, or working a crossword puzzle may help you relax. (references)

The ultimate goal of the Genome Project is to decode, letter by letter, the exact sequence of all 3 billion nucleotide bases that make up the human genome. (references)

Typically, a physician's letter stating the reason for withholding the vaccination and written on letterhead stationery is required by the embassy or consulate. (references)

Business

An invitation to bid is attached to the letter. (references)

Previously it was permitted only against letter of credits. (references)

The method of payment is usually by letter of credit or sight draft. (references)

Children

Kenya

In a letter to the Minister of Education, FIDA demanded that the Government fire these teachers. (references)

Cuba

On January 15, Juan Carols Gonzalez Leyva and Luis Esteban Alvarez of the Independent Fraternity of the Blind of Cuba (FRACIC) sent a letter to President Castro complaining about the difficult situation that blind persons encounter. (references)

Russia

Ombudsmen may only write a letter requesting an inquiry by law enforcement authorities, assist those whose rights have been violated to understand their legal rights, and make suggestions to legislators (local, regional, and federal) on ways to improve legislation. (references)

Civil Liberties

Samoa

No legal action was taken against the person who wrote the letter. (references)

Singapore

In March the police issued a warning letter to one of the two persons questioned. (references)

Haiti

Reporters Without Borders wrote a letter to the Ministry of Justice to express its concern. (references)

Economic History

Cyprus

The usual method of transaction is by letter of credit, with 90-days credit. (references)

Egypt

Without the certainty of a letter of credit, defaults are a strong possibility. (references)

Indonesia

Markets are watching closely to see how the GOI implements the Letter of Intent. (references)

Human Rights

Cameroon

There was no evidence by year's end that this letter influenced changes in security force behavior. (references)

Morocco

On September 24, Adib published a letter from Sale Prison, distributed through human rights groups. (references)

Somalia

Somaliland President Egal wrote a letter to the Ethiopian Government and asked for an explanation for the attack. (references)

Indigenous People

Colombia

In an open letter, the AUC stated that it did not have Bedoya in its custody. (references)

Minorities

Argentina

In April Alberto Merenson, a retired musician and former director of the Symphonic Orchestra of San Juan Province, was the victim of a letter bomb. (references)

Russia

In that letter, Putin noted that the problem of anti-Semitism persisted and reiterated the Government's commitment to fight it. FEOR's Rabbi Berel Lazar cited the letter as the first time a President had acknowledged publicly anti-Semitism as a problem to be addressed. (references)

Political Economy

Colombia

Legislators, the executive, and the courts often promote their own interpretations of both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution. (references)

BANGLADESH

Ready-made garment producers are assisted by bonded warehousing and back-to-back letter of credit facilities for imported cloth and accessories. (references)

BRAZIL

If inflation exceeds the outer band, the Central Bank president needs to address an open letter to the Minister of Finance explaining why the target was not met. (references)

Trade

Spain

The nearest Spanish Consulate should certify the letter. (references)

Czech Rep

Most would prefer not to use a letter of credit due to its high cost. (references)

Australia

A confirmed letter of credit guarantees payment by a foreign bank as well. (references)

Travel

Thailand

MEDICAL TREATMENT (requiring letter from licensed doctor). (references)

Thailand

SPORTS or CREW (requiring letter from organization concerned). (references)

Qatar

A sponsorship letter, however, is not always a basic requirement. (references)

Women

Japan

As of November 21, the AWF had collected donations totaling approximately $4.33 million (548 million yen) and given lump sum payments of almost $2.97 million (376 million yen) and a letter of apology signed by the Prime Minister to more than 188 women from the Philippines, Korea, and Taiwan. (references)

Worker Rights

Kenya

The law permits workers to strike, provided that 21 days have elapsed following the submission of a written letter to the Minister of Labor. (references)

Oman

Without such a letter, a foreign worker must continue to work for his current employer or become technically unemployed, which are sufficient grounds for deportation. (references)

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

SYMBOLIC, adj. Pertaining to symbols and the use and interpretation of symbols. They say 'tis conscience feels compunction; I hold that that's the stomach's function, For of the sinner I have noted That when he's sinned he's somewhat bloated, Or ill some other ghastly fashion Within that bowel of compassion. True, I believe the only sinner Is he that eats a shabby dinner. You know how Adam with good reason, For eating apples out of season, Was "cursed." But that is all symbolic: The truth is, Adam had the colic. G.J. T T, the twentieth letter of the English alphabet, was by the Greeks absurdly called tau. In the alphabet whence ours comes it had the form of the rude corkscrew of the period, and when it stood alone (which was more than the Phoenicians could always do) signified Tallegal, translated by the learned Dr. Brownrigg, "tanglefoot."

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Letter

SpeakerPhrase(s)

James Lipton

When it began I wrote this passionate letter to people I knew, studio members, of course, and other people with whom we have worked over the years and I said come and teach our students.

Nancy Grace

Smart has the letter. He just told us. Police don't even have the letter. And we can sit back and armchair quarterback that it's a hoax. But they need to be following up on this and not bungle this the way they sat on that video.

Robert Novak

Mr. Chairman, Director Mueller was first rather dismissive of the charges of incompetency by Coleen Rowley, the FBI agent that sent the letter to him, but he came back this week and commended Ms. Rowley for her whistle-blowing.

Robert Shapiro

I came into the case, and I went to Washington. And I started talking to political leaders. And eventually, we were able to get the support of then Majority Leader Trent Lott, who sent the letter to Attorney General Ashcroft.

Rush Limbaugh

In the upcoming edition of The Limbaugh Letter, I endorse Reverend Al Sharpton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Speeches: Letter

SpeakerTermPhrase(s)

George Washington

1789-1797A letter from the Emperor of Morocco announces to me his recognition of our treaty made with his father, the late Emperor, and consequently the continuance of peace with that power.

Martin van Buren

1837-1841For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was designed by those who framed it.

John F. Kennedy

1961-1963You referred in your letter to a violation of your frontier by an American aircraft in the area of the Chukotsk Peninsula.

George Bush

1989-1993It's a letter servicemen write--and hope will never, ever be sent.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Letter

"Letter" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.99% of the time. "Letter" is used about 13,577 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)99.99%13,575670
                    Total100.00%13,577N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Derived & Related Names: Letter

The following table summarizes names derived from the word "letter".
 
NameGenderLanguageMeaning
MahaziothN/ABiblical

Seeing a letter

OmegaN/ABiblical

The last letter of the Greek alphabet

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

 

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Expressions: Letter

Expressions using "letter": a blind letter a dead letter abusive letter acceptance letter address the letter