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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dominical letter

Whenever the intercalation is made there must necessarily be a change in the dominical letter.

From Our Calendar by George Nichols Packer

Then 1 - 0 = 1; therefore, A being the first letter, is dominical letter for 1865.

From Our Calendar by George Nichols Packer

By this rule the dominical letter is found from the commencement of the era to October 5th, 1582.

From Our Calendar by George Nichols Packer

Then 10 - 3 = 7; therefore, G being the seventh letter, is dominical letter for 1582.

From Our Calendar by George Nichols Packer

In order to make use of the solar cycle in finding the dominical letter, it is necessary to know that the first year of the Christian era began with Saturday.

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

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