Other forms: letters
A letter is a written message on paper, sent in an envelope. Write a letter, post the letter, a letter arrived.
It is also one of the twenty-six characters of the alphabet: the letter A, capital letters. To the letter means exactly as written: follow it to the letter. Note letterbox, letterhead, cover letter; the letter of the law against its spirit; and that letter writing has declined so far that a handwritten letter is now an event rather than a message.
1nounletterA written message sent in an envelope.~56%
“I wrote a letter to my grandmother and posted it on my way to school.”
2nouncharacterOne character of the alphabet.~44%
“Write your name in capital letters at the top of the page.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 18 sentences found in the wild and placed 18 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
letter is a written message or character.
Latin littera meant a letter of the alphabet, and in the plural litterae meant an epistle. Literature, literal and obliterate all come from it, and obliterate means to strike the letters out.
Latin
littera — letter of the alphabet"; in plural, "epistle
Old French
letre
Middle English
letter
English, today
letter
From Middle English letter, lettre, from Old French letre, from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet"; in plural, "epistle”). bōcstæf in sense 1 and ǣrendġewrit literally “message writing” in sense 2.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA