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

Then 10 - 3 = 7; therefore, G being the seventh letter is dominical letter for 1453.

From Our Calendar by George Nichols Packer

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

From Our Calendar by George Nichols Packer

To find the dominical letter for 1620, we have 1620 ÷ 4 = 405; 1620 + 405 = 2025; 2025 ÷ 7 = 289, remainder 2.

From Our Calendar by George Nichols Packer

Then we have for the year 2, 3 - 2 = 1; therefore A being the first letter, is dominical letter for the year 2; hence it is evident that January commenced on Sunday.

From Our Calendar by George Nichols Packer

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 George Nichols Packer