Word of the Day: Letter

let-ter / ˈledər

noun

1.      a symbol, either written or printed, which represents a speech sound and is a unit of an alphabet

It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’

Fred Rogers, 1928-2003

2.      a written or printed message addressed and sent to someone

The word that is heard perishes, but the letter that is written remains.

Traditional Proverb

3.      plural, literature

A man of letters, merely by reading a phrase, can estimate exactly the literary merit of its author.

from ‘Swann’s Way’ by Marcel Proust, 1871-1922

4.      actual wording; literal meaning

Only a fool permits the letter of the law to override the spirit in the heart.

Rod Stewart, 1945-

5.      sometimes plural, an emblem containing the initial of a school or organization which is given to a student or member for some achievement

It mattered to me that I do well, that I impress people with the empty signs of my ambition: good grades, varsity letters, awards for whatever it was they were judging us on that week.

from ‘The Locked Room’ by Paul Auster, 1947-

verb

1.      to inscribe or mark with symbols from the alphabet

When I am grown up I shall carry a notebook – a fat book with many pages, methodically lettered.

Virginia Woolf, 1882-1941