literature

English

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Alternative forms

• literatuer (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin literatura or litteratura.

Pronunciation

• (UK)

• IPA: /ˈlɪt.(ə.)ɹ.ɪ.tʃjʊə(ɹ)/, /ˈlɪt.ɜː(ɹ).ɪ.tʃjʊə(ɹ)/
• X-SAMPA: /"lIt.(@)r.I.tSjU@(r)/, /"lIt.3:(r).I.tSjU@(r)/

• (GenAm)

• IPA: /ˈlɪ.tɚ.ɪ.tʃɚ/, /ˈlɪ.tɚ.ə.tʃɚ/
• X-SAMPA: /"lUIt.@`.I.tS@`/

• Audio

  (file)

• (Midwestern US English)

• IPA: /ˈlɪ.tə.tʃɚ/

Noun

literature (usually uncountable; plural literatures)

1. The body of all written works.
2. The collected creative writing of a nation, people, group, or culture.
3. All the papers, treatises, etc. published in academic journals on a particular subject.
4. Written fiction of a high standard.

   SF is rarely literature because the characters are so poorly realised. - Adam Cadre

Meronyms

• See also Wikisaurus:literature

Related terms

• letter
• literal
• literacy
• literate
• literary

Translations

body of all written works

• Albanian: literaturë, letërsi
• Arabic: الأدب (ar)
• Aragonese: literatura
• Asturian: lliteratura
• Azerbaijani: ədəbiyyat
• Bashkir: әҙәбиәт (äðäbiät)
• Basque: literatura
• Bengali: সাহিত্য (bn)
• Bulgarian: литература (bg) (literatura)
• Catalan: literatura (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 文學 (cmn), 文学 (cmn) (wénxué)

• Czech: literatura (cs)
• Danish: litteratur (da)
• Dutch: literatuur (nl)
• Esperanto: literaturo (eo)
• Estonian: literatuur (et)
• Faroese: bókmentir (fo) f pl
• Finnish: kirjallisuus (fi)
• French: littérature (fr)
• Galician: literatura
• Georgian: ლიტერატურა (ka) (literatura)
• German: Literatur (de)
• Greek: λογοτεχνία (el) (logotechnía) f
• Hebrew: ספרות (he)
• Hindi: साहित्य (hi)
• Hungarian: irodalom (hu)
• Icelandic: bókmenntir (is) f pl
• Ido: literaturo (io)
• Indonesian: kesusasteraan (id)
• Interlingua: litteratura (ia)
• Irish: litríocht (ga) f
• Italian: letteratura (it)
• Japanese: 文献 (ぶんけん) (bunken), 文学 (ぶんがく) (bungaku)
• Javanese: sastra
• Kazakh: әдебиет (kk) (ədebiet)
• Korean: 문학 (ko) (munhak)
• Latin: litterae (la)

• Latvian: literatūra (lv)
• Limburgish: literatuur
• Lithuanian: literatūra (lt)
• Low German: Literatur
• Luxembourgish: Literatur (lb)
• Macedonian: литература (literatura)
• Malay: kesusasteraan (ms), sastera (ms)
• Malayalam: സാഹിത്യം
• Maltese: letteratura (mt)
• Nepali: साहित्य (ne)
• Norwegian: litteratur (no)
• Occitan: literatura
• Oriya: ସାହିତ୍ୟ (or)
• Persian: ادبیات (fa), ادب (fa) (adab)
• Polish: literatura (pl)
• Portuguese: literatura (pt)
• Romanian: literatură (ro) f
• Russian: литература (ru) (literatura) f
• Scots: leiteratur
• Scottish Gaelic: litreachas (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: књижевност (sh)

  Roman: književnost (sh) m

• Sicilian: littiratura
• Slovak: literatúra
• Slovene: literatura (sl)
• Spanish: literatura (es)
• Swedish: litteratur (sv)
• Tagalog: literatura (tl), panitikan (tl)
• Tamil: இலக்கியம் (ta) (ilakkiyam)
• Thai: วรรณกรรม (th)
• Turkish: literatür (tr), edebiyat (tr), yazın (tr)
• Ukrainian: література (uk) (literatura)
• Uyghur: ئەدەبىيات (ug) (edebiyat)
• Vietnamese: văn chương (vi)
• Volapük: literat (vo)
• Welsh: llên
• West Frisian: literatuer

the collected creative writing of a nation, people, group or culture

• Bashkir: әҙәбиәт (äðäbiät)
• Irish: litríocht (ga) f

• Portuguese: literatura (pt) f
• Serbo-Croatian: književnost (sh) f

all the papers, treatises etc. published in academic journals on a particular subject

• Bashkir: әҙәбиәт (äðäbiät)
• Irish: litríocht (ga) f

• Portuguese: literatura (pt) f
• Serbo-Croatian: literatura (sh) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Armenian: գրականություն (grakanut'yun)
• Icelandic: bókmenntir

• Kurdish:

  Sorani: ئاداب

• Marathi: साहित्य
• Novial: literature
• Tajik: адабиёт
• Urdu: ادب

Anagrams

• literateur
• literatuer