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Definition: Letter |
LetterNoun1. 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. Verb1. 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) |
| Domain | Definition |
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. | |
(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.
- A language may represent a given phoneme with a combination of letters rather than just a single letter.
- A language may represent the same phoneme with two different letters or combinations of letters.
- A language may spell some words with unpronounced letters that exist for historical or other reasons.
- Pronunciation of individual words may change according to the presence of surrounding words in a sentence.
- Different dialects of a language may pronounce different phonemes for the same word.
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).
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".
- 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
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
- Africa
- Arabic
- Aramaic
- Armenian
- Bengali
- Bopomofo
- Brahmi
- Burmese
- Cherokee
- Coptic
- Cree
- Cyrillic - Russian
- Deseret
- Devangari
- Ethiopic
- Etruscan
- Glagolitic
- Gothic
- Greek
- Gujarati
- Gurmukhi
- Hebrew
- Iberian
- Inuktitut
- Old Italic
- Kannada
- Khmer
- Korean
- Lao
- Malayalam
- Meroitic
- Mongolian
- Ogham
- Oriya
- Phoenician
- Roman alphabet (also known as Latin alphabet)
- Albanian
- Catalan
- Danish
- Dutch
- Esperanto
- Estonian
- Finnish
- French
- German
- Hawaiian
- Hungarian
- Icelandic
- Initial Teaching Alphabet
- Italian
- Latvian
- Norwegian
- Romaji (Japanese written with Roman script)
- Romanian
- Rotokas
- Scottish Gaelic
- Slovenian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Turkish
- Welsh
- Runic
- Shavian
- Siddham
- Sinhala
- Syriac
- Tamil
- Telugu
- Thaana
- Thai
- Tibetan
- Tengwar
- Tifinagh
- Old Turkic
- Ugaritic
- Vinca (suggested)
Special alphabets
See also:
- Braille
- Morse code
- NATO Phonetic
- Manual
- abjad, abugida
- Alphabets derived from the Latin
- syllabary
- transliteration
- character set
External links
- Alphabetic Writing Systems
- Alphabets of Europe
- The Unicode Consortium
- Evolution of alphabets animation by Prof. Robert Fradkin at the University of Maryland
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Alphabet."
(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.
- Epistle to the Romans
- First Epistle to the Corinthians
- Second Epistle to the Corinthians
- Epistle to the Galatians
- Epistle to the Ephesians
- Epistle to the Philippians
- Epistle to the Colossians
- First Epistle to the Thessalonians
- Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
- First Epistle to Timothy
- Second Epistle to Timothy
- Epistle to Titus
- Epistle to Philemon
- Epistle to the Hebrews
- Epistle of James
- First Epistle of Peter
- Second Epistle of Peter
- First Epistle of John
- Second Epistle of John
- Third Epistle of John
- Epistle of Jude
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.
- Epistle of the Romans to the Corinthians (I Clement)
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans
- Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp
- Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians
- Epistle of Barnabas
- Epistle to Diognetus
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Epistles."
(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.
- such an action would be defensive
- the intent is found to be just and noble. The United States does not intend to 'destroy, conquer, or exploit Iraq'
- it is a last resort because Saddam Hussein had a record of attacking his neighbors, of the 'headlong pursuit and development of biochemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction' and their use against his own people , and harboring Al Qaeda terrorists
- it is authorized by a legitimate authority, namely the United States
- it has limited goals
- it has reasonable expectation of success
- non-combatant immunity would be observed
- it meets the criteria of proportionality—the human cost on both sides would be justfied by the intended outcome
External Link
- text of the Land Letter
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Land letter."
(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
- Greek alphabet
- Hebrew alphabet
- Cyrillic alphabet
- Roman Naming Conventions
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.
- the cedilla in ç (originally a little z written below the c) that symbolized /ts/ in Romance
- the hacek in Slavonic languages, used to mark palatalised versions of the base letter, e.g. č.
- the tilde in Spanish ñ or some Portuguese vowels (originally a little n written above the letter) used to mark the elision of a former N, and then later to mark nasalisation of the base letter.
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:
- In French and English, characters with diaeresis (ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ) are treated just like their un-accented versions. If two words differ only by an accent in French, the one with the accent is greater.
- In German umlaut (Ä,Ö,Ü) are treated generally just like their non-umlauted versions; ß is always sorted as ss. This makes the alphabetic order Arg, Ärgerlich, Arm, Assistent, Aßlar, Assoziation. For phone directories and similar lists of names, the umlauts are to be collated like the letter combinations "ae", "oe", "ue". This makes the alphabetic order Udet, Übelacker, Uell, Ülle, Ueve, Üxküll, Uffenbach.
- In the Swedish alphabet, "W" is seen as a variant of "V" and not a separate letter. It is however recognised and maintained in names, like in "William". The alphabet also has three extra vowels placed at its end (..., X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö). The same alphabet and collating rules are used for Finnish.
- The same extra vowels as in Swedish are also present in the Danish and Norwegian alphabets but in a different order and with different glyphs (..., X, Y, Z, Æ, Ø, Å). Also, "Aa" collates as an equivalent to "Å". The Danish alphabet sees "W" as a variant of "V".
- Some languages have more complex rules: for example, Spanish treated (til 1997) "CH" and "LL" as single letters, giving an ordering of CINCO, CREDO, CHISPA and LOMO, LUZ, LLAMA. This is not true anymore since in 1997 RAE adopted the more normal usage, and now LL is collated between LI and LO, and CH between CE and CI. The only Spanish specific collating question is Ñ (eñe) as a different letter collated after N.
- In Dutch the combination IJ was formerly to be collated as Y (or sometimes, as a separate letter Y < IJ < Z), but is currently mostly collated as 2 letters (II < IJ < IK). Note that a word starting with ij that is written with a capital I is also written with a capital J, e.g. the town IJmuiden (mun. Velsen) and the river IJssel.
- The Hungarian language has accents, umlauts, and double accents. The accent is ignored in collating, and the double accent, which indicates a long umlaut vowel, is treated as equal to the umlaut.
- In Icelandic, Þ is added, and D is followed by Ð.
- Both letters were also used by Anglo-Saxon scribes who also used the Runic letter Wynn to represent /w/.
- Þ (called thorn; lowercase þ) is also a Runic letter, some scholars derive it from Latin D.
- Ð (called eth; lowercase ð) is the letter D with an added stroke.
- In Polish, specifically Polish letters derived from the Latin alphabet are collated after their originals: A, Ą, B, C, Ć, D, E, Ę, ..., L, Ł, M, N, Ń, O, Ó, P, ..., S, Ś, T, ..., Z, Ź, Ż.
- In Czech, accented vowels are treated as their unaccented forms, but accented consonants (the ones with hacek) immediatelly follow their unaccented counterparts. The letter CH goes between H and I.
- In Esperanto, consonants with circumflex accents (ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ), as well as ŭ (u with breve), are counted as separate letters and collated separately (c, ĉ, d, e, f, g, ĝ, h, ĥ, i, j, ĵ ... s, ŝ, t, u, ŭ, v, z).
- In Tatar, there are 9 additional letters. 5 of them are vowels, paired with main alphabet vowels as hard-smooth: a-ä, o-ö, u-ü, í-i, ı-e. The four remaining are consonants: ş is sh, ç is ch, ñ is ng and ğ is gh.
- In Croatian and related South Slavic languages, the five accented characters and two conjoined characters are sorted after the originals: ..., C, Č, Ć, D, DŽ, Đ, E, ..., L, LJ, M, N, NJ, O, ..., S, Š, T, ..., Z, Ž.
References
- Jensen, Hans. 1970. Sign Symbol and Script. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. Transl. of Die Schrift in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften. 1958, as revised by the author.
- Rix, Helmut. 1993. "La scrittura e la lingua" In: Cristofani, Mauro (hrsg.) 1993. Gli etruschi - Una nuova immagine. Firenze: Giunti. S.199-227.
- Sampson, Geoffrey. 1985. Writing systems. London (etc.): Hutchinson.
- Wachter, Rudolf. 1987. Altlateinische Inschriften: sprachliche und epigraphische Untersuchungen zu den Dokumenten bis etwa 150 v.Chr. Bern (etc.): Peter Lang.
- Biktaş, Şamil, 2003, Tuğan Tel.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Latin alphabet."
(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:
- Address
- Envelope
- Epistle
- Lettrisme
- Letterboxing
- Mailbox
- Manuscript
- Penpal
- Postal service
- Postmaster
- Postmaster General
- Post office
- Postage Stamp
- Private Express Statutes
- Snail mail
- Stationery
- Typography
- Universal Postal Union
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "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:
- The SI prefix micro-, which represents one millionth, or 10-6.
- Formerly, the micron, an old unit corresponding to the micrometer.
- Rarely, to distinguish between one item represented by m and another (but m might be an easier option).
- The coefficient of friction, ie. the ratio of the limiting frictional force between two surfaces against the normal contact force.
- Alpha - Beta - Gamma - Delta - Epsilon - Digamma - Zeta - Eta - Theta - Iota - Kappa - Lambda - Mu - Nu - Xi - Omicron - Pi - San - Qoppa - Rho - Sigma - Tau - Upsilon - Phi - Chi - Psi - Omega - Sampi
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Mu (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:
- Euler's phi function φ(n)
- The golden mean.
- In physics and mathematics, the value of an angle.
- The work function.
- The empty set.
- In signal processing, the phase of a sinusoidal signal.
See also other things named phi, Phi phenomenon.
- magnetic flux
See also:
- Alpha - Beta - Gamma - Delta - Epsilon - Digamma - Zeta - Eta - Theta - Iota - Kappa - Lambda - Mu - Nu - Xi - Omicron - Pi - San - Qoppa - Rho - Sigma - Tau - Upsilon - Phi - Chi - Psi - Omega - Sampi
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Phi (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:
- In mathematics, the product operation.
- In textual criticism, Codex Petropolitanus, a 9th century, uncial codex of the Gospels, now located in St. Petersburg, Russia.
See also:
- In economics, profit.
- In mathematics, the constant pi, which is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle.
- In number theory, the function π(x) is the number of primes that are less than or equal to x.
- In particle physics, π0, π+ and π- are three forms of pi meson.
- Pi (movie)
- Alpha - Beta - Gamma - Delta - Epsilon - Digamma - Zeta - Eta - Theta - Iota - Kappa - Lambda - Mu - Nu - Xi - Omicron - Pi - San - Qoppa - Rho - Sigma - Tau - Upsilon - Phi - Chi - Psi - Omega - Sampi
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pi (letter)."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
- A writing system
- A manuscript, scroll
- A draft for a book
- The dialog and instructions for a play, film (see screenplay) or comic book or strip
- 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."
Synonyms: LetterSynonyms: alphabetic character (n), letter of the alphabet (n), missive (n), varsity letter (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms 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. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
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. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & 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. | |||
![]() | ![]() |
| "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. | |
| Author | Quotation |
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. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
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. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
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. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
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. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(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. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
George Washington | 1789-1797 | A 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 | 1837-1841 | For 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 | 1961-1963 | You referred in your letter to a violation of your frontier by an American aircraft in the area of the Chukotsk Peninsula. |
George Bush | 1989-1993 | It's a letter servicemen write--and hope will never, ever be sent. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "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 Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.99% | 13,575 | 670 |
| Total | 100.00% | 13,577 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "letter". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Mahazioth | N/A | Biblical | Seeing a letter |
| Omega | N/A | Biblical | The last letter of the Greek alphabet |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
Expressions using "letter": a blind letter ♦ a dead letter ♦ abusive letter ♦ acceptance letter ♦ address the letter ♦ |