Literature vs. Letters — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Literature and Letters
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Compare with Definitions
Literature
Literature broadly is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed.
Letters
A written symbol or character representing a speech sound and being a component of an alphabet.
Literature
Written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit
A great work of literature
Letters
A written symbol or character used in the graphemic representation of a word, such as the h in Thames. See Note at Thames.
Literature
The body of written works of a language, period, or culture.
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Letters
A written or printed communication directed to a person or organization.
Literature
Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value
"Literature must be an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity" (Rebecca West).
Letters
Often letters A certified document granting rights to its bearer.
Literature
The art or occupation of a literary writer.
Letters
Literal meaning
Had to adhere to the letter of the law.
Literature
The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field
Medical literature.
Letters
Literary culture; belles-lettres.
Literature
Printed material
Collected all the available literature on the subject.
Letters
Learning or knowledge, especially of literature.
Literature
(Music) All the compositions of a certain kind or for a specific instrument or ensemble
The symphonic literature.
Letters
Literature or writing as a profession.
Literature
The body of all written works.
Letters
A piece of type that prints a single character.
Literature
The collected creative writing of a nation, people, group, or culture.
Letters
A specific style of type.
Literature
(usually preceded by the) All the papers, treatises, etc. published in academic journals on a particular subject.
Letters
The characters in one style of type.
Literature
Written fiction of a high standard.
However, even “literary” science fiction rarely qualifies as literature, because it treats characters as sets of traits rather than as fully realized human beings with unique life stories. —Adam Cadre, 2008
Letters
An emblem in the shape of the initial of a school awarded for outstanding performance, especially in varsity athletics.
Literature
Learning; acquaintance with letters or books.
Letters
To write letters on
Lettered the paper.
Literature
The collective body of literary productions, embracing the entire results of knowledge and fancy preserved in writing; also, the whole body of literary productions or writings upon a given subject, or in reference to a particular science or branch of knowledge, or of a given country or period; as, the literature of Biblical criticism; the literature of chemistry.
Letters
To write in letters
Lettered our name on the mailbox.
Literature
The class of writings distinguished for beauty of style or expression, as poetry, essays, or history, in distinction from scientific treatises and works which contain positive knowledge; belles-lettres.
Letters
To write or form letters.
Literature
The occupation, profession, or business of doing literary work.
The origin of all positive science and philosophy, as well as of all literature and art, in the forms in which they exist in civilized Europe, must be traced to the Greeks.
Learning thy talent is, but mine is sense.
Some gentlemen, abounding in their university erudition, fill their sermons with philosophical terms.
Letters
To earn a school letter, as for outstanding athletic achievement
She lettered in three collegiate sports.
Literature
Creative writing of recognized artistic value
Letters
Plural of letter
Literature
The humanistic study of a body of literature;
He took a course in Russian lit
Letters
Literature school subject.
Rickert was the first woman (and second individual) to be awarded a Ph.D. in English letters and philology with that academic honor at the University of Chicago.
Literature
Published writings in a particular style on a particular subject;
The technical literature
One aspect of Waterloo has not yet been treated in the literature
Letters
The liberal arts, humanities, learning broad accumulated cultural knowledge.
Though architecture in ancient Rome was not generally considered to belong to the artes liberales, Vitruvius easily qualified as a man of letters because of his wide learning.
Literature
The profession or art of a writer;
Her place in literature is secure
Letters
The literary culture;
This book shows American letters at its best
Letters
Scholarly attainment;
He is a man of letters
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