letters
noun
Form of letter , plural of letter.
Simple meaning
The liberal arts, humanities.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lehterzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɛtɚz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The liberal arts, humanities, learning (broad accumulated cultural knowledge).
Literature (school subject).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The liberal arts, humanities, learning (broad accumulated cultural knowledge).
Used this way, letters is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use letters
- “This book shows American letters at its best.”noun
- “He is a man of letters.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A written message addressed to a person or organization.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Legal document naming someone to administer an estate when no executor has been named.
A license to a private citizen to seize property of another nation.
An official document granting a right or privilege.
A legal document from a probate court or court officer informing you of your appointment as executor of a will and empowering you to discharge those responsibilities.
A man devoted to literary or scholarly activities.
An honorary degree in letters.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Letters inscribed (especially words engraved or carved) on something.
Dull knife used to cut open the envelopes in which letters are mailed or to slit uncut pages of books.
Someone who communicates by means of letters.
Case for carrying letters.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.