Capital letter of the alphabet
Why Are There Uppercase and Lowercase Letters?
SCIENCE — Health and Fitness
Have You Ever Wondered...
- Why are there uppercase and lowercase letters?
- Did uppercase or lowercase letters come first?
- Do all languages have both uppercase and lowercase letters?
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Did you see that? Right there…back at the beginning of that first sentence. What are we talking about? The word “Did," of course! Did you notice anything strange about that word? Did you? For example, did you notice that it contained one letter twice but it looked different each time it appeared?
“Did," when it appears at the beginning of a sentence, starts out with an uppercase “D" and ends with a lowercase “d." They're the same letter, but they look different. Have you ever given any thought to how strange that is? Why can't all letters simply be the same? Why do we have both uppercase and lowercase letters?
When it comes to letters, case refers to whether letters are written in larger uppercase form, which is also often known as majuscule or capital letters, or smaller lowercase form, which is also known as miniscule or small letters. For example, the first three letters of the alphabet in uppercase form are A, B, and C. Those same three letters in lowercase form are a, b, and c.
Historians believe that majuscule or uppercase letters came first. The first alphabets were written entirely in large majuscule letters, evenly spaced between well-defined upper and lower bounds.
Over time, however, it was only natural that smaller versions of each letter would develop. This probably happened as letters were written quickly. To save time and space, letters became smaller and more rounded as scribes hurried to finish their work.
These smaller versions of letters eventually evolved into an entire miniscule set of letters. Compared to majuscule versions, the miniscule versions offered improved and faster readability in addition to being easier and faster to write.
At first, scribes would only use majuscule or miniscule letters, but not a mixture of both. That changed over time, though. Although there were no official capitalization rules in the English language until the early 18th century, scribes had traditionally written certain letters, such as nouns and the first letters of sentences, in a larger, distinct script for hundreds of years.
Today, lowercase letters are used most frequently, with uppercase letters reserved for special purposes, such as capitalizing proper nouns or the first letter of a sentence. The terms “uppercase" and “lowercase" come from the way in which print shops were organized hundreds of years ago.
Individual pieces of metal type were kept in boxes called cases. The smaller letters, which were used most often, were kept in a lower case that was easier to reach. Capital letters, which were used less frequently, were kept in an upper case. Because of this old storage convention, we still refer to small letters as lowercase and capital letters as uppercase.
The distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters doesn't exist in all languages, though. Certain Eastern and Asian writing systems, including certain Indian, Chinese, and Japanese alphabets, do not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Try It Out
Did you enjoy learning more about uppercase and lowercase letters today? Learn even more when you explore the following activities with a friend or family member:
- Write your name in a new and interesting way today! Have you ever tried writing your name in all uppercase letters? What about all lowercase letters? How about all lowercase letters until the end and then a capital letter at the very end? Come up with some fun and crazy ways to write your name. You never know when you might invent an entirely new style of writing!
- Ask an adult friend or family member to help you create a simple document on the computer with a word processor. All you need to do is write a few simple sentences. Write a short story or simply write a few sentences about what you had for dinner the night before. Once you have your sentences, play with the selection of fonts available on your computer. What font do you like the best? Why? Have fun playing with fonts to change the look of your text!
- When is it important to know the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters? When you need to capitalize something, of course! Take the online Capitalization Quiz to test your knowledge of proper capitalization. How well can you do? Test yourself against your friends and family members.
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Capital letter Definition & Meaning
- Top Definitions
- Quiz
- Related Content
- More About Capital Letter
- Examples
This shows grade level based on the word's complexity.
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See synonyms for capital letter on Thesaurus. com
This shows grade level based on the word's complexity.
noun
a letter of the alphabet that usually differs from its corresponding lowercase letter in form and height, as A, B, Q, and R as distinguished from a, b, q, and r: used as the initial letter of a proper name, the first word of a sentence, etc.
QUIZ
SHALL WE PLAY A "SHALL" VS. "SHOULD" CHALLENGE?
Should you take this quiz on “shall” versus “should”? It should prove to be a quick challenge!
Question 1 of 6
Which form is commonly used with other verbs to express intention?
Also called capital.
Words nearby capital letter
capitalistic, capitalization, capitalization issue, capitalize, cap it all, capital letter, capital letters, capital levy, capital loss, capitally, capital market
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022
MORE ABOUT CAPITAL LETTER
What is a
capital letter?A capital letter is the bigger, taller version of a letter (like W), as opposed to the smaller version, which is called a lowercase letter (like w).
Capital letters are also called uppercase letters or simply capitals.
Some capital letters are just larger, taller versions of their lowercase counterparts (like capital W and lowercase w or capital C and lowercase c), but in many cases the two versions of the letter take different forms altogether, such as capital A and lowercase a or capital B and lowercase b.
To capitalize a word is to make its first letter a capital letter. For example, to capitalize the word polish (which is here spelled with a lowercase p), you would write it with a capital P, as Polish.
The state of being capitalized (or the process of capitalizing) is called capitalization, as in Please check your paper for proper punctuation and capitalization.
In English, capital letters are used at the beginning of words for a few different reasons. It is considered a standard rule of English to use a capital letter to start proper nouns (which are nouns that refer to specific people, places, or things—meaning one’s that have specific names), such as Jess, Mexico, and Nintendo. Using a capital letter at the start of a word can change the way the reader interprets its meaning, as in the case of polish (a verb meaning to make something shinier) and Polish (an adjective describing someone from Poland) or apple (the fruit) and Apple (the company).
We also use a capital letter for the first letter of the first word in a sentence. Sometimes, we use a capital letter for the first letter of each word in a title, as in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Some acronyms and abbreviations are written using all capital letters, such as NASA and U.S. A word written entirely in capital letters (like WHAT) is said to be written in caps or all caps.
Example: A lot of people don’t bother using capital letters in text messages unless they want to emphasize something.
Where does
capital letter come from?The term capital letter has been used since at least the 1400s. The word capital comes from the Latin capitālis, meaning “concerning the head,” or “chief,” from caput, “head.”
It can be confusing to know whether or not to use a capital letter in certain situations, but a capitalization guide can help.
Did you know ... ?
How is
capital letter used in real life?Capital letters are used in the beginning of names and other proper nouns, at the beginning of sentences, at the beginning of words in titles, and in some abbreviations. In casual use, a word might be written in all capital letters for emphasis.
The capital letters spelling out April Ninth…. . people work hard but Taylor Swift works HARDER pic.twitter.com/q7GqtmkWW6
— Nora Dominick (@noradominick) February 11, 2021
Learning middle school text lingo. RULE #1: Only text in lower case letters with no punctuation.
RULE #2: Use a capital letter and you are angry
RULE #3: Use a period and you’re furious.
RULE #4: Send a black screen and all hell is about to break loose.— Matt Austin (@MattNews6) February 6, 2021
I cannot follow ppl who type with a capital letter at the beginning of EVERY word. It hurts my eyes and head.
— Big Mama (KODA’S MAMA) (@DiamondBAshley) February 9, 2021
Try using
capital letter!Which of the following kinds of words is often spelled with a capital letter at the beginning?
A. proper nouns
B. the first word in a sentence
C. the first word in a title
D. all of the above
Words related to capital letter
cap, capital, majuscule
How to use capital letter in a sentence
The team also wants to add the ability for mindtexting capital letters and symbols.
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Gunshots rang out in Paris this morning on a second day of deadly violence that has stunned the French capital.
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In memoriam, Parker Molloy writes a powerful letter to Leelah.
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Your letter highlights so many of the harsh realities trans people face, specifically in regard to how society rejects us.
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Just a few short years ago, I sat down at my computer, and I typed out a similar goodbye letter.
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Copies of the letter were sent to senior members of the church hierarchy and to the Soviet government.
Remembering the Russian Priest Who Fought the Orthodox Church|Cathy Young|December 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
"Capital, capital," his lordship would remark with great alacrity, when there was no other way of escape.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
He turned to the gentle accents of his sweet Alice, breathed in a letter which had been wet with her grateful tears.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4|Jane Porter
When we speak against one capital vice, we ought to speak against its opposite; the middle betwixt both is the point for virtue.
Pearls of Thought|Maturin M. Ballou
Hoosier hurried on board the boat, and followed Dick's instructions to the letter.
The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun;|Various
A letter from Fajardo to the king (December 10, 1621) concerns various matters of administration and business.
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Lowercase letters of the Russian language - Altarena.ru - technologies and answers to questions What are lowercase letters?
Little letter
Lowercase letter is a letter that is smaller than uppercase letters. Lowercase letters are used in European alphabets (Greek, Latin, Cyrillic and Armenian). For example, the letter "a" is lowercase, and "A" is capital (uppercase).
Initially, when writing, they used exclusively capital letters, which had clearly defined upper and lower boundaries. With the development of cursive writing, the shape of the letters became more rounded, which resulted, for example, in such a form of writing as the uncial.
In turn, the foundations of the Carolingian minuscule script, developed by Alcuin for use at the court of Charlemagne, arose, which quickly spread throughout Europe. At the same time, for the first time, they began to mix uppercase and lowercase letters into a single text.
See also
See what "Small Letter" is in other dictionaries: capital) letters and sometimes differs from it in the drawing, for example, by the presence of external elements [upper and lower descenders ... ... Font terminology
Lowercase letter - a letter that is smaller in size than an uppercase (capital) letter and sometimes differs from it and according to the drawing (grapheme). S. b. they type, as a rule, words inside the sentence, if they are not proper names that begin with ... ... Publishing Dictionary-Reference
lower case letter is a (small) letter. A letter of the usual size, used for writing in all cases, except when, according to the rules of spelling and punctuation, the use of an uppercase letter is required ... Dictionary of linguistic terms
Letter T - Cyrillic letter T Cyrillic A B C D Ґ D ... Wikipedia
Letter b - Cyrillic letter b Cyrillic A B C D Ґ D ... Wikipedia
Letter R - Cyrillic letter R Cyrillic A B C D Ґ D ... Wikipedia
Letter K - Cyrillic letter K Cyrillic A B C D Ґ D ... Wikipedia
LETTER - LETTER, letters, genus. pl. letters, female 1. A sign of the alphabet. Uppercase, lowercase letter. There are 32 letters in the Russian alphabet. 2. trans. The narrowly formal meaning of something (some text; bookish). Obey the letter of the law. ❖ To be, to remain a dead letter (book ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Ѧ (letter) - Small Yus Cyrillic A B C D Ґ D ... Wikipedia
letter - s, genus. pl. letters, g. 1) A sign for the written designation of speech sounds. Uppercase (lowercase) letter. Skip a letter. Synonyms: letter / tera (bookish) 2) (transl. usually what, only singular) The formal side of what l. Follow the letter of the law ... Popular Dictionary of the Russian Language
Source
Lowercase letters are ...
Lowercase letters are small letters that are used to write words in a sentence, except for the initial letter and proper names.
To understand what lowercase letters are, let's remember that in the Russian alphabet 33 letters have different graphic styles. Each letter is depicted as a large, or uppercase, and smaller, or lowercase.
What are lower case letters?
How did the term "lowercase letter" come about? To find out its origin, let's take a short digression into the history of writing.
Long ago in ancient Russia, when the printing press had not yet been invented, letters, royal decrees, books were written by hand. Specially trained monks were engaged in rewriting church and secular books. They wrote in calligraphic handwriting on pre-lined paper. In order for the text to be written evenly, the writer wrote the letters on a fairly narrow line, indicated above and below by a straight line. Such letters were small and uniform in height. Lowercase letters are written in a line. From word "line" the adjective "lowercase" arose, which began to denote a small letter inscribed between two straight parallel lines.
The beginning of a sentence was written with a capital letter, which was called a capital letter. A large letter was written, decorating it with curls and painting it in different colors. The remaining letters of the written text were small, or lowercase.
In modern life, few people write letters in a line, and the ancient name is "lowercase letters" was assigned to the small letters of the Russian alphabet.
Lower case letters help distinguish between proper nouns and common nouns in the text.
Compare:
Here is a yard boy running, planting a bug in a sled , transforming himself into a horse ... (A. S. Pushkin).
Sanya whistled to Bug and went along the overgrown path into the forest.
In a famous folk tale, a cunning the fox fooled the stupid wolf.
Hungry godfather Fox climbed into the garden (I. A. Krylov. Fox and grapes).
His mouth was so burned by bitter pepper that tears gushed from his eyes.
Writer M. Gorky - author of the famous play "At the Bottom".
Pronunciation of the word "lowercase"
I wonder how the word is pronounced correctly
Divide this word into phonetic syllables:
In the old days, this three-syllable word was pronounced only with a stressed ending vowel, like the deriving word:
In modern speech, the word "line" with the stressed vowel "o" influenced the pronunciation of this adjective. Dictionaries fix double stress both on the root vowel "o" and on the ending vowel:
Source
How uppercase and lowercase letters are written and what it is
Russian letters differ from each other not only in style and sound designation, but also in size. Correct spelling follows certain rules. Uppercase and lowercase letters - what every schoolchild knows, especially an elementary school student. But the knowledge gained at school is forgotten very quickly, and adults are unlikely to remember the definitions of these terms.
Types of graphic characters on a letter
Uppercase and lowercase letters are two types of graphic characters on a letter. Interestingly, the division into such varieties is not in all languages. They are present in Cyrillic, and also in the Greek alphabet, Latin, Armenian. The situation in Georgia is unusual. There are no capital icons (with a specific meaning of use), but certain sections of the text (for example, titles, headings) are typed in large icons. They have small inscriptions, but differ from them in size. In other writing systems, the division into uppercase and lowercase letters does not exist.
For the first acquaintance with them, it is enough to learn brief information:
And in order to remember the information better, linger in the head for a long time and not turn into confusion, you need to study the issue deeper, delving into the details.
This is interesting! Russian lessons: as if - how to spell correctly
Uppercase
This is a capital, large, beautiful, initial. The letter sign is increased in size compared to the rest. Most often, it is the only one in the line, it is with it that the sentence begins. In elementary school, children with great diligence learn to draw the first alphabetic character - because it should turn out beautiful.
The first official use of capital letters is seen in the 15th century. However, further research showed that people tried to beautifully arrange the initial characters of the name, surname, sentence long before the beginning of the 15th century. Such graphic icons, decorated with ornaments and curlicues, were called drop caps.
Capital letters in the text are written only in those cases that are confirmed by spelling rules. The most common of them, which are most often encountered in practice, will be indicated below.
This is interesting! The word is also: written together or separately
Another definition of “capital” is found in elementary school at the stage of teaching writing. It is less common, therefore it does not appear in dictionaries. It is used only to distinguish between the type of writing, the antonym for the word "capital" is "printed". When a teacher asks to write a word, a sentence, a text in cursive, he means lowercase and uppercase letters. And their choice should take place on the basis of the studied rules.
Lowercase
This is a small letter. In a sentence and text, it is much more common than graphic icons of the previous type. This is explained by the fact that small letters are used several times more often in writing - these are the rules of Russian spelling.
All letters that do not fall under the rules for writing capitals are lined up in one line and have the same height, therefore they are called lowercase.
Please note! The stress in the term "line" falls not on the first, but on the last syllable, no matter how much one would like to associate its pronunciation with the pronunciation of the word "line".
Useful videos: How do you write small capital letters?
Main differences
Uppercase and lowercase letters have a number of differences from each other.
They are as follows:
Having learned for oneself the difference between capital and small graphic icons, a person stops confusing these two terms with each other.
This is interesting! What are exception words in Russian: examples
Examples
A good example of how the styles of both categories look like.
Ex. | A | B | B | G | D | E | E | and | 9029EA | 9029EA | A | B | B | G | D | E | E | K | L | M | H | O | P | R | S | T | Y | F |
Page | K | L | m | H | O | P | R | ° | X | C | H | W | W | E | S | R | x | c | h | Sh | Sh. | b. | s | b | E | U | I |
when comparing the scheduled ones, it is possible that they are clear, it is clear that they are okay.
This is interesting! How to write the roots of words with alternating vowels: rules and examples
Spelling of capital letters
In Russian, the use of two types of writing is subject to the rules of the corresponding section of spelling. According to them, the new sentence begins with a capital character, which seems to lead the army of small, ordinary icons. It shows that the previous thought has ended and another has begun, or simply denotes the beginning of a thought. Direct speech, quotations, each new line of the poem begins with the title.
But there are other, more complex rules that explain the spelling of capital and lowercase letters:
Possible difficulties in choosing an option
In Russian, most of the rules are ambiguous and have additional explanations or exceptions.
Important! When the choice of letter size (capital/small) is required to fill out important documents or perform serious tasks, work, it is better to check yourself in dictionaries and reference books.
Possible difficulties in choosing the size of a graphic icon:
Useful video: lowercase Russian letters
Conclusion
and the peculiarities of their use, and therefore, they do not have serious difficulties in complying with this norm.
The main thing is to remember the definitions, to understand some of the difficulties for yourself. And in case of difficulty, do not forget about the possibility of referring to the dictionary.
Source
How uppercase and lowercase letters are written and what they are
Russian letters differ from each other not only in style and sound designation, but also in size. Correct spelling follows certain rules. Uppercase and lowercase letters - what every schoolchild knows, especially an elementary school student. But the knowledge gained at school is forgotten very quickly, and adults are unlikely to remember the definitions of these terms.
Types of graphic characters on a letter
Uppercase and lowercase letters are two types of graphic characters on a letter. Interestingly, the division into such varieties is not in all languages. They are present in Cyrillic, and also in the Greek alphabet, Latin, Armenian. The situation in Georgia is unusual. There are no capital icons (with a specific meaning of use), but certain sections of the text (for example, titles, headings) are typed in large icons. They have small inscriptions, but differ from them in size. In other writing systems, the division into uppercase and lowercase letters does not exist.
For the first acquaintance with them, it is enough to learn brief information:
And in order to remember the information better, linger in the head for a long time and not turn into confusion, you need to study the issue deeper, delving into the details.
This is interesting! Russian lessons: as if - how to spell correctly
Uppercase
This is a capital, large, beautiful, initial. The letter sign is increased in size compared to the rest. Most often, it is the only one in the line, it is with it that the sentence begins. In elementary school, children with great diligence learn to draw the first alphabetic character - because it should turn out beautiful.
The first official use of capital letters is seen in the 15th century. However, further research showed that people tried to beautifully arrange the initial characters of the name, surname, sentence long before the beginning of the 15th century. Such graphic icons, decorated with ornaments and curlicues, were called drop caps.
Capital letters in the text are written only in those cases that are confirmed by spelling rules. The most common of them, which are most often encountered in practice, will be indicated below.
This is interesting! The word is also: written together or separately
Another definition of “capital” is found in elementary school at the stage of teaching writing. It is less common, therefore it does not appear in dictionaries. It is used only to distinguish between the type of writing, the antonym for the word "capital" is "printed". When a teacher asks to write a word, a sentence, a text in cursive, he means lowercase and uppercase letters. And their choice should take place on the basis of the studied rules.
Lowercase
This is a small letter. In a sentence and text, it is much more common than graphic icons of the previous type. This is explained by the fact that small letters are used several times more often in writing - these are the rules of Russian spelling.
All letters that do not fall under the rules for writing capitals are lined up in one line and have the same height, therefore they are called lowercase.
Please note! The emphasis in the term “lowercase” falls not on the first, but on the last syllable, no matter how much one would like to associate its pronunciation with the pronunciation of the word “line”.
Main differences
Uppercase and lowercase letters have a number of differences from each other.
They are as follows:
Having learned for oneself the difference between capital and small graphic icons, a person stops confusing these two terms with each other.
This is interesting! What are exception words in Russian: examples
Examples
An illustrative example of how the faces of both categories look like.