different between letter vs character
letter
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /?l?t?(?)/
- (General American) IPA(key): /?l?t?/, /-??/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /?let?(?)/, /-??(?)/
- Rhymes: -?t?, -?t?(r), -?t?(?)
- Hyphenation: let?ter
Etymology 1
From Middle English letter, lettre, from Old French letre, from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet"; in plural, "epistle”), from Etruscan, from Ancient Greek ??????? (diphthér?, “tablet”). Displaced native Middle English bocstaf, bookstave (“letter, alphabetic symbol”) (from Old English b?cstæf (“alphabetic symbol, written character”)), Middle English bocrune, bocroune (“letter, written character”) (from Old English b?c (“book”) + r?n (“letter, rune”)), Middle English writrune, writroune (“letter, document”) (from Old English writ (“letter, epistle”) + r?n (“letter, rune”)), Old English ?rendb?c (“letter, message”), Old English ?rend?ewrit (“letter, written message”). Doublet of diphtheria.
Alternative forms
- lettre (obsolete)
Noun
letter (plural letters)
- A symbol in an alphabet.
- And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew.
- A written or printed communication, generally longer and more formal than a note.
- An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’.
- The literal meaning of something, as distinguished from its intended and remoter meaning (often contrasted with the spirit).
- (plural) Literature.
- (law) A division unit of a piece of law marked by a letter of the alphabet.
- (US, uncountable) A size of paper, 8½ in × 11 in (215.9 mm × 279.4 mm, US paper sizes rounded to the nearest 5 mm).
- (Canada, uncountable) A size of paper, 215 mm × 280 mm.
- (US, scholastic) Clipping of varsity letter.
- (printing, dated) A single type; type, collectively; a style of type.
Synonyms
- (written character/alphabetic symbol): bookstaff/bookstave
Hyponyms
- epistle
- missive
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Verb
letter (third-person singular simple present letters, present participle lettering, simple past and past participle lettered)
- (transitive) To print, inscribe, or paint letters on something.
- (intransitive, US, scholastic) To earn a varsity letter (award).
Translations
Etymology 2
let +? -er.
Alternative forms
- lettor
Noun
letter (plural letters)
- One who lets, or lets out.
- (archaic) One who retards or hinders.
Translations
Further reading
- letter on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- letter (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- letter in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- letter in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
Anagrams
- lettre, tetrel
Afrikaans
Etymology
From Dutch letter, from Middle Dutch lettere, from Old French lettre, from Latin littera.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?l?.t?r/
Noun
letter (plural letters, diminutive lettertjie)
- letter (letter of the alphabet)
Derived terms
- hoofletter
- letterkunde
Dutch
Etymology
From Middle Dutch lettere, from Old French lettre, from Latin littera.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?l?.t?r/
- Hyphenation: let?ter
- Rhymes: -?t?r
Noun
letter f (plural letters, diminutive lettertje n)
- letter (letter of the alphabet)
- (obsolete) letter (written message)
Derived terms
Descendants
- Afrikaans: letter
- ? Indonesian: leter
- ? Japanese: ???? (retteru)
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology 1
Verb
letter
- present of lette
Etymology 2
Noun
letter m
- indefinite plural of lett (non-standard since 2005)
Norwegian Nynorsk
Noun
letter m
- indefinite plural of lett (non-standard since 2012)
Swedish
Noun
letter
- indefinite plural of lett
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character
English
Etymology
From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r, “type, nature, character”), from ??????? (kharáss?, “I engrave”). Doublet of charakter.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /?k??(?)kt?/, /?kæ?(?)kt?/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /?kæ??kt?/
- Hyphenation: char?ac?ter
Noun
character (countable and uncountable, plural characters)
- (countable) A being involved in the action of a story.
- (countable) A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; phene.
- (uncountable, countable) A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.
- A man of […] thoroughly subservient character
- (uncountable) Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.
- (countable) A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.
- (countable) A written or printed symbol, or letter.
- 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech
- It were much to be wished that there were throughout the world but one sort of character for each letter to express it to the eye.
- 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech
- (countable, dated) Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
- (countable, dated) A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
- (countable, computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
- (countable, informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown or raises suspicions.
- (countable, mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
- (countable) Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.
- (countable, dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.
- This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it.
- (countable, dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
- (countable, obsolete) Personal appearance.
Usage notes
Character is sometimes used interchangeably with reputation, but the two words have different meanings; character describes the distinctive qualities of an individual or group while reputation describes the opinions held by others regarding an individual or group. Character is internal and authentic, while reputation is external and perceived.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Pages starting with “character”.
Translations
Verb
character (third-person singular simple present characters, present participle charactering, simple past and past participle charactered)
- (obsolete) To write (using characters); to describe.
See also
- codepoint
- font
- glyph
- letter
- symbol
- rune
- pictogram
Latin
Etymology
From the Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /k?a?rak.ter/, [k?ä??äkt??r]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ka?rak.ter/, [k????kt??r]
Noun
character m (genitive charact?ris); third declension
- branding iron
- brand (made by a branding iron)
- characteristic, mark, character, style
Declension
Third-declension noun.
Descendants
- Hungarian: karakter
- Galician: caritel; ? carácter
- Irish: carachtar
- Italian: carattere
- Old French: caractere
- ? English: character
- French: caractère
- Polish: charakter
- ? Russian: ????????? (xarákter)
- Portuguese: caractere, carácter
- Sicilian: caràttiri
- Spanish: carácter
References
- character in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- character in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
- character in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
Portuguese
Noun
character m (plural characteres)
- Obsolete spelling of caráter (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).
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