letter

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Related to to the letter: follow up, fall short, drop a line, at a loss, in the midst of

letter:

see alphabetalphabet
[Gr. alpha-beta, like Eng. ABC], system of writing, theoretically having a one-for-one relation between character (or letter) and phoneme (see phonetics). Few alphabets have achieved the ideal exactness.
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Letter

(1) A graphic sign, or type.

(2) a grapheme, or unit of an alphabet. In an ordinary text a letter signifies not a sound but a phoneme. More precisely, a letter segment of a written word may, in an ideal situation, coincide with a phonemic segment of the corresponding word when sounded. In actuality, however, such a coincidence almost never occurs. A letter may also not have a sound equivalent if it is used only in a certain graphic combination or in a digraph (a graphic symbol consisting of two letters); thus, in the German othography the letter q can only occur in the combination qu.

REFERENCES

Boduen-de-Kurtene, I. A. “Neskol’ko slov po povodu ’obshche-slavianskoi azbuki.’” Zhurnal Ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniia, 1871, no. 5, pp. 149-95.
Boduen-de-Kurtene, I. A. Ob otnoshenii russkogo pis’ma k russkomu iazyku. St. Petersburg, 1912.
Shcherba, L. V. “Teoriia russkogo pis’ma.” In his book Izbrannye raboty po russkomu iazyku. Moscow, 1957.
Gelb, I. J. Study of Writing. London, 1952.

What does it mean when you dream about a letter?

Dreaming about receiving and reading a letter can indicate either our intuitions or our fantasies about what the sender thinks about us. We send letters in a dream when we want to tell someone something. A dream letter can also be an allusion to certain idioms, from doing something “to the letter” to receiving a rejection “Dear John letter.”

letter

[′led·ər]

(communications)

A character used in an alphabet generally representing one or more sounds of a spoken language.

Letter

(dreams)

Dreaming about receiving letters, just as in daily life, usually represents receiving news, information, or messages from someone specific, from your unconscious, or from the world at large. If you look forward to mail, this dream may have positive connotations for you. However, if you dread the envelopes that hold the monthly bills, then this dream may have negative and anxiety-provoking meaning. Typically, however, dreaming about receiving letters has positive and, at times, spiritual connotations. You may be coming into greater awareness about some aspect of your life, having new realizations, increasing your self-understanding, or getting to the truth of things that concern you. Some believe that seeing many unopened letters in your dreams may represent missed opportunities.

References in periodicals archive ?

Due to the almost total lack of Catholic teaching materials which are obedient to the letter of Vatican II, we decided to start producing our own materials.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

They also gave approval for the subdivision of the Coliseum parcel and buildings, and agreed to the letter of intent that was to result in the full-blown contract, to be signed on July 15th.

Coliseum deal collapses: how talks broke down

The only modification that can be made to the letter is the addition of the following language: "This letter is solely for the information and use of [CPA's name] in connection with the offering of securities covered in the offering circular (or prospectus) and it is not to be used, circulated, quoted or otherwise referred to in whole or in part in the offering circular (or prospectus) or any other document."