letters patent

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plural noun Law.

a written or printed instrument issued by a sovereign power, conferring upon a patentee some right, as the exclusive right to land or the exclusive right to make, use, and sell an invention for a limited time.

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Origin of letters patent

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Words nearby letters patent

letterset, letter-size, letters of administration, letters of credence, letterspace, letters patent, letters testamentary, letter stock, letterwood, let the cat out of the bag, let the chips fall where they may

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use letters patent in a sentence

Gang tattoos are still inked onto his face, like scarlet letters.
How Good Dads Can Change the World|Gary Barker, PhD, Michael Kaufman|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
But then, I would look at the letters that people have sent.
Inside A Finishing School for Transwomen|Sharon Adarlo|December 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
If the embargo were effective, the Castro brothers would have been doing Love Letters with the Duvaliers years ago.
Obama’s One Hand Clap With Castro|Doug McIntyre|December 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Red letters scrawled underneath seem to be Ramone thinking aloud: “I wonder but I think so.”
‘All Good Cretins Go to Heaven’: Dee Dee Ramone’s Twisted Punk Paintings|Melissa Leon|December 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST

The remark comes to mind while reading The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer.
Mailer’s Letters Pack a Punch and a Surprising Degree of Sweetness|Ronald K. Fried|December 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
As small letters weary the eye most, so also the smallest affairs disturb us most.
Pearls of Thought|Maturin M. Ballou
Robert Fitzgerald received a patent in England for making salt water fresh.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology|Joel Munsell
Letters coming from him from time to time prove that he was alive and well at least until three months ago.
St. Martin's Summer|Rafael Sabatini
The book contains many words in which some though not all of the letters are in italics, for example Swordsman.
Assimilative Memory|Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)
No law of that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only in two-and-twenty.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift

British Dictionary definitions for letters patent

letters patent

pl n

See patent (def. 6)

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