lower case

See also: lowercase and lower-case

English

Alternative forms

• lowercase

Etymology

Named for the original arrangement in typesetting, where the drawer or case containing minuscule letters would traditionally be located below the one containing capital letters.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈləʊ.ə(ɹ)ˌkeɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

lower case (uncountable)

1. The minuscule or small letters (a, b, c, as opposed to the uppercase or capital letters, A, B, C).

   The strongest passwords are those which mix numbers and letters, upper case and lower case, and symbols.

Usage notes

• Pedantically, lowercase and uppercase describe type, while minuscule and majuscule describe handwriting, and small and capital are more generally applied to any letters, including painted, engraved, etc.

Synonyms

• small letter
• minuscule

Antonyms

• uppercase, upper case
• majuscule
• capital, cap
• big letter
• block letter

Coordinate terms

• ALL CAPS
• AlTeRnaTinG cApS
• CamelCase
• Initial Caps
• Sentence case
• Title Case

Derived terms

• lower camel case
• lower-case (adjective)
• lowercasify

Related terms

• case-dependent, case dependent
• case-insensitive, case insensitive
• caseless
• case-sensitive, case sensitive
• mixed-case, mixed case
• small capitals, small caps
• uppercase, upper case

Translations

lower case / lowercase (as a collective noun) or lower case letters (in the plural) — see also miniscule

• Arabic: حَرْف صَغِير m (ḥarf ṣaḡīr), أَحْرُف صَغِيرَة f pl (ʔaḥruf ṣaḡīra), نَسَق صَغِير m (nasaq ṣaḡīr)
• Armenian: փոքրատառ (hy) (pʻokʻrataṙ)
• Belarusian: малы́я лі́тары f pl (malýja lítary), малы́я бу́квы f pl (malýja búkvy)
• Bulgarian: ма́лки бу́кви f pl (málki búkvi)
• Catalan: minúscules (ca) f pl (adjective, but sometimes used like a noun)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 小寫 / 小写 (zh) (xiǎoxiě), 小寫字母 / 小写字母 (zh) (xiǎoxiě zìmǔ)

• Czech: malé písmeno (cs) n
• Danish: små bogstaver n pl
• Dutch: kleine letters f pl, klein schrift n, kleinschrift n (cf. grootschrift), onderkast (nl), onderkastletters
• Esperanto: minusklaro (collective), minuskloj
• Finnish: gemena (fi), pienaakkonen (fi), pieni kirjain
• French: minuscules (fr) f pl, bas-de-casse (fr) m pl, bas de casse (fr) m pl
• Georgian: ქვედა რეგისტრი (kveda regisṭri), მცირე ასოები (mcire asoebi), პატარა ასოები (ṗaṭara asoebi), ნუსხური (nusxuri)
• German: Kleinschrift f, Kleinschreibung (de) f, Kleinbuchstaben (de) m pl, gemeine Buchstaben m pl, Gemeinbuchstaben m pl
• Greek: μικρό γράμμα n (mikró grámma)
• Hindi: छोटा अक्षर m (choṭā akṣar)
• Hungarian: kisbetű (hu), minuszkula
• Icelandic: litlir stafir m pl
• Irish: cás íochtair m
• Italian: minuscoli (it) m pl
• Japanese: 小文字 (ja) (こもじ, komoji)
• Korean: 소문자(小文字) (ko) (somunja)
• Macedonian: мали букви f pl (mali bukvi)
• Manx: lettryn beggey m pl
• Māori: pūriki
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: حُروفِ کوچَک pl (horuf-e kučak), حُروفِ ریز pl (horuf-e riz)

• Polish: małe litery (pl) f pl
• Portuguese: minúscules f pl
• Romanian: litere mici f pl
• Russian: стро́чные бу́квы f pl (stróčnyje búkvy), ни́жний реги́стр m (nížnij regístr) (computing), минуску́л (ru) m (minuskúl), ма́ленькие бу́квы f pl (málenʹkije búkvy)
• Slovak: malé písmeno n
• Spanish: minúsculas (es) f pl, caja baja f
• Swedish: gemener c pl, små bokstäver c pl
• Turkish: küçük harf
• Ukrainian: малі́ лі́тери f pl (malí lítery), малі́ бу́кви f pl (malí búkvy)
• Volapük: minudem (collective), minuds