black letter

noun

Printing.

1. a heavy-faced type in a style like that of early European hand lettering and the earliest printed books.

black letter

noun

1. printing another name for Gothic

Other Word Forms

• black-letter adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of black letter¹

First recorded in 1630–40

Example Sentences

Directly across from the local Chamber of Commerce’s “Welcome to Joshua Tree” sign on the Twentynine Palms Highway, a makeshift billboard declares “JTAM” in tall black letters set over a broad strip of limpid blue.

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Even his shaved head is covered in the Gothic black letters long popular in Chicano culture that spell out: Family, Loyalty, L.A.

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“It doesn’t say you have to go to court, you don’t have to do X, Y and Z; that’s what the black letter law says,” Sarega said.

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So Friday morning, coach Sean McVay arrived at the team’s Woodland Hills facility with a message inscribed in black letters on a paperweight:

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"Not only is this rule not authorized by existing law and is actually contrary to black letter Georgia law, but it presents very serious security and chain of custody concerns."

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