Definition of "letters" in English

noun

1. plural of letter

noun

1. Literature (school subject).

   • Rickert was the first woman (and second individual) to be awarded a Ph.D. in English letters and philology with that academic honor at the University of Chicago.

2. The liberal arts, humanities, learning (broad accumulated cultural knowledge).

   • Though architecture in ancient Rome was not generally considered to belong to the artes liberales, Vitruvius easily qualified as a man of letters because of his wide learning.

verb

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of letter