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View synonyms for literature

literature

[ lit-er-uh-cher, -choor, li-truh- ]

noun

  1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays.
  2. the entire body of writings of a specific language, period, people, etc.:

    the literature of England.

  3. the writings dealing with a particular subject:

    the literature of ornithology.

  4. the profession of a writer or author.
  5. literary work or production.
  6. any kind of printed material, as circulars, leaflets, or handbills:

    literature describing company products.

  7. Archaic. polite learning; literary culture; appreciation of letters and books.


literature

/ ˈlɪtərɪtʃə; ˈlɪtrɪ- /

noun

  1. written material such as poetry, novels, essays, etc, esp works of imagination characterized by excellence of style and expression and by themes of general or enduring interest
  2. the body of written work of a particular culture or people

    Scandinavian literature

  3. written or printed matter of a particular type or on a particular subject

    scientific literature

    the literature of the violin

  4. printed material giving a particular type of information

    sales literature

  5. the art or profession of a writer
  6. obsolete.
    learning


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Other Words From

  • pre·liter·a·ture noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of literature1

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English litterature, from Latin litterātūra “grammar;” literate, -ure

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Word History and Origins

Origin of literature1

C14: from Latin litterātūra writing; see letter

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Synonym Study

Literature, belles-lettres, letters refer to artistic writings worthy of being remembered. In the broadest sense, literature includes any type of writings on any subject: the literature of medicine; usually, however, it means the body of artistic writings of a country or period that are characterized by beauty of expression and form and by universality of intellectual and emotional appeal: English literature of the 16th century. Belles-lettres is a more specific term for writings of a light, elegant, or excessively refined character: His talent is not for scholarship but for belles-lettres. Letters (rare today outside of certain fixed phrases) refers to literature as a domain of study or creation: a man of letters.

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Example Sentences

The research literature, too, asks these questions, and not without reason.

She wanted to know what happened over five years, or even 10, but the scientific literature had little to offer.

The religion shaped all facets of life: art, medicine, literature, and even dynastic politics.

Speaking of the literature you love, the Bloomsbury writers crop up in your collection repeatedly.

Literature in the 14th century, Strohm points out, was an intimate, interactive affair.

All along the highways and by-paths of our literature we encounter much that pertains to this "queen of plants."

There cannot be many persons in the world who keep up with the whole range of musical literature as he does.

In early English literature there was at one time a tendency to ascribe to Solomon various proverbs not in the Bible.

He was deeply versed in Saxon literature and published a work on the antiquity of the English church.

Such unromantic literature as Acts of Parliament had not, it may be supposed, up to this, formed part of my mental pabulum.

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literatorliteratus