literature

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See also:łiterature

English

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EnglishWikipediahas an article on:
Wikipedia
Commons:Category
Commons:Category
Wikimedia Commonshas more media related to:
Wikiquotehas a collection of quotations related to:

Wikiquote

Wikisourcehas original text related to this entry:

Wikisource

Wikibooks has more about this subject:

Wikibooks

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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FromMiddle Englishliterature,fromOld Frenchlittérature,fromLatinliteraturaorlitteratura,fromlittera(“letter”),fromEtruscan,fromAncient Greekδιφθέρᾱ(diphthérā,“tablet”).Displaced nativeOld Englishbōccræft.

Pronunciation

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  • (UK)IPA(key):/ˈlɪt.ə.ɹə.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/,/ˈlɪt.ɹə.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/
  • (General American)IPA(key):/ˈlɪt.ɚ.ə.t͡ʃɚ/,[ˈlɪɾ.ɚ.ə.t͡ʃɚ],/ˈlɪt.ɹə.t͡ʃɚ/,[ˈlɪt͡ʃ.ɹə.t͡ʃɚ],/ˈlɪt.ɚ.t͡ʃɚ/
    • Audio(US):(file)
  • (Midwestern US English)IPA(key):/ˈlɪt.ə.t͡ʃɚ/

Noun

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literature(usuallyuncountable,pluralliteratures)

  2. The body of allwrittenworks.
  4. The collected creative writing of a nation, people, group,or culture.
  6. (usually preceded bythe)All thepapers,treatises,etc. published inacademicjournalson a particularsubject.
    • 1988,Andrew Radford, chapter 7, inTransformational grammar: a first course,Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page373:
      The obvious question to ask at this point is: ‘Why posit the existence of a set of Thematic Relations (THEME,AGENT,INSTRUMENT,etc.) distinct from constituent structure relations?ʼ The answer given in the relevantliteratureis that a variety of linguistic phenomena can be accounted for in a more principled way in terms of Thematic Functions than in terms of constituent structure relations.
    • 2018,James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, inEnglish World-Wide‎[1],page 3:
      In fact, information on when each of the terms first appeared in English, and if obsolete, how long they persisted, is entirely absent from theliterature.
  8. Written fiction of a high standard.
    • 2008, Adam Cadre
      However, even “literary” science fiction rarely qualifies asliterature,because it treats characters as sets of traits rather than as fully realized human beings with unique life stories.
    Synonym:literary fiction
  10. (obsolete)Literacy;ability to read and write.
    • 1854,Charles Dickens,Hard Times: A Novel:
      They all assumed to be mighty rakish and knowing, they were not very tidy in their private dresses, they were not at all orderly in their domestic arrangements, and the combinedliteratureof the whole company would have produced but a poor letter on any subject.

Meronyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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body of all written works
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked: "not sure those should be listed as separate senses, though"

Further reading

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  • "literature" in Raymond Williams,Keywords(revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 183.

Anagrams

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