dominical letter

American  

noun

1. any one of the letters from A to G used in church calendars to mark the Sundays throughout any particular year, serving primarily to aid in determining the date of Easter.

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dominical letter British  

noun

1. Christianity any one of the letters A to G as used to denote Sundays in a given year in order to determine the church calendar

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Etymology

Origin of dominical letter

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dominical letter

Let L denote the number of the dominical letter of any given year of the era.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" by Various

Now every day suppressed removes the dominical letter forward one place; so counting from C to C again is seven, D is eight, E is nine, and F is ten.

From Our Calendar by Packer, George Nichols

Then 10 - 5 = 5; therefore E being the fifth letter is the dominical letter for 1365.

From Our Calendar by Packer, George Nichols

Then 3 - 2 = 1; therefore, A being the first letter, is dominical letter for 450, Old Style, and January commenced on Sunday.

From Our Calendar by Packer, George Nichols

Then 2 - 1 = 1; therefore, A being the first letter, is dominical letter for 1989.

From Our Calendar by Packer, George Nichols