belles-lettres
Americanplural noun
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literature regarded as a fine art, especially as having a purely aesthetic function.
-
light and elegant literature, especially that which is excessively refined, characterized by aestheticism, and minor in subject, substance, or scope.
noun
Related Words
See literature.
Other Word Forms
- belletrist noun
- belletristic adjective
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.
Crossing the line between belles-lettres and pulp, Petry was a pioneer of the literary thriller, a genre popularised by her contemporary Patricia Highsmith.
From The Guardian • Dec. 14, 2019
“Both anatomy and belles-lettres are of equally noble descent,” Chekhov once wrote to his publisher, adding that they share “identical goals and an identical enemy—the Devil.”
From The New Yorker • May 6, 2019
Dandies, it seems, are dandy; but belles-lettres is better.
From The New Yorker • Aug. 3, 2015
It was not a period when belles-lettres particularly flourished.
From Slate • Mar. 22, 2012
More recently in Carmel there have been a great number of literary men about, but there is not the old flavor, the old dignity of the true belles-lettres.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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.
