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definitions

black letter

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noun Printing.

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

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Nearby words

  1. black kite,
  2. black knight,
  3. black knot,
  4. black land,
  5. black lead,
  6. black light,
  7. black liquor,
  8. black list,
  9. black lives matter,
  10. black locust

Origin of black letter

First recorded in 1630–40
Also called text.
Related formsblack-let·ter, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for black letter

British Dictionary definitions for black letter

black letter

noun

printing another name for Gothic (def. 10)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for black letter

black letter

early 17c., from black (adj.); so called to distinguish heavy, old-style printers' types from the ones coming into use then, which are the dominant modern forms, though a style of black letter was preserved in German into 20c.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper