belles-lettres
Americanplural noun
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literature regarded as a fine art, especially as having a purely aesthetic function.
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light and elegant literature, especially that which is excessively refined, characterized by aestheticism, and minor in subject, substance, or scope.
noun
Synonym Usage
See literature.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of belles-lettres
1700–10; from French: literally, “fine letters.” See belle, letter 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the course of obtaining permission to scan the Paris scrolls, Seales had to give a presentation, in French, to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, an academy within the Institut de France.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 16, 2015
The Institute is composed of five bodies : the French Academy, the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.
From Time Magazine Archive
He even changed the name of the Prussian Academy to the Academic des Sciences et Belles-Lettres.
From Time Magazine Archive
Last week the Acad�mie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux was calling for a song to make Frenchmen drink more wine.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bessy, on the other hand, desired to know whether she would find anything of mine in the portion of the journal devoted to the Belles-Lettres.
From Eyes Like the Sea by Jókai, Mór
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
