literature definition | Dictionary.com

lit⋅er⋅a⋅ture

[lit-er-uh-cher, -choo

r, 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.

Origin:
1375–1425; late ME litterature < L litterātūra grammar. See literate, -ure

Synonyms:
1. 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.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To literature

lit·er·a·ture (lĭt'ər-ə-chŏŏr', -chər)

The body of written works of a language, period, or culture.
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).
The art or occupation of a literary writer.
The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field: medical literature.
Printed material: collected all the available literature on the subject.
Music All the compositions of a certain kind or for a specific instrument or ensemble: the symphonic literature.

[Middle English, book learning, from Old French litterature, from Latin litterātūra, from litterātus, lettered; see literate.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Literature

Lit"er*a*ture\, n. [F. litt['e]rature, L. litteratura, literatura, learning, grammar, writing, fr. littera, litera, letter. See Letter.]

1. Learning; acquaintance with letters or books.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. The occupation, profession, or business of doing literary work. --Lamp.

Syn: Science; learning; erudition; belles-lettres.

Usage: See Science. -- Literature, Learning, Erudition. Literature, in its widest sense, embraces all compositions in writing or print which preserve the results of observation, thought, or fancy; but those upon the positive sciences (mathematics, etc.) are usually excluded. It is often confined, however, to belles-lettres, or works of taste and sentiment, as poetry, eloquence, history, etc., excluding abstract discussions and mere erudition. A man of literature (in this narrowest sense) is one who is versed in belles-lettres; a man of learning excels in what is taught in the schools, and has a wide extent of knowledge, especially, in respect to the past; a man of erudition is one who is skilled in the more recondite branches of learned inquiry.

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. --Sir G. Lewis.

Learning thy talent is, but mine is sense. --Prior.

Some gentlemen, abounding in their university erudition, fill their sermons with philosophical terms. --Swift.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : literature

Spanish: literatura,

German: die Literatur,

Japanese: 文学

More Translations »

literature

c.1375, from L. lit(t)eratura "learning, writing, grammar," originally "writing formed with letters," from lit(t)era "letter." Originally "book learning" (it replaced O.E. boccræft), the meaning "literary production or work" is first attested 1779 in Johnson's "Lives of the English Poets" (he didn't include this definition in his dictionary, however); that of "body of writings from a period or people" is first recorded 1812.

literature
The literature. Computer-science journals and other publications, vaguely gestured at to answer a question that the speaker believes is trivial. Thus, one might answer an annoying question by saying "It's in the literature." Oppose Knuth, which has no connotation of triviality.
(1994-11-04)

literature

a body of written works. The name has traditionally been applied to those imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of their authors and the perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution. Literature may be classified according to a variety of systems, including language, national origin, historical period, genre, and subject matter.

Learn more about literature with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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