lowercase

See also: lower-case and lower case

English

Alternative forms

• (noun): lower case
• (adjective and verb): lower-case

Etymology

From the noun phrase lower case, which itself consists of an adjective modifying a noun; when used as a noun adjunct then, to make its syntactical function clearer/simpler, it is written as a single word or with a hyphen as a sort of chunking.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈloʊ.ɚˌkeɪs/

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌləʊ.ə(ɹ)ˈkeɪs/, /ˈləʊ.ə(ɹ)ˌkeɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

lowercase (uncountable)

1. Alternative spelling of lower case

Adjective

lowercase (not comparable)

2. in lower case

Synonyms

• lowercased
• minuscule

Antonyms

• uppercase

Translations

in lower case

• Armenian: փոքրատառ (hy) (pʻokʻrataṙ)
• Dutch: in kleine letters, kleingeschreven, onderkast (nl)
• Finnish: pienillä kirjaimilla kirjoitettu
• French: minuscule (fr)
• Georgian: ქვედა რეგისტრის (kveda regisṭris)
• German: kleingeschrieben (de), klein (de)
• Greek: μικρά γράμματα n pl (mikrá grámmata)
• Hungarian: kisbetűs (hu), kurrens (hu) (typography)
• Italian: minuscolo (it) m
• Portuguese: minúsculo (pt)
• Russian: стро́чный (ru) (stróčnyj), ма́ленький (ru) (málenʹkij)
• Tagalog: minuskula, kaha-baha
• Welsh: bach (cy)

Verb

lowercase (third-person singular simple present lowercases, present participle lowercasing, simple past and past participle lowercased)

1. (transitive) To convert (text) to lower case.
   • 1990 April 28, Harry Hay, “Identifying As Gay ― Here's The Key”, in Gay Community News, page 5:

     Sister Jadallah apologizes for being unable to bring her readers facts and figures on Palestinian Lesbianism (forgive my capital "L" in Lesbianism, but like my Black brothers I cannot bring myself to lower-casing our recently empowering accoutrements of our Gay identities)

   • 2000, Tom Miller, Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink: Offbeat Travels Through America’s Southwest, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISBN, page 216:

     I never asked Rob e. Hanson why he lowercased his middle initial; I suppose he figured a man just shouldn’t accumulate too much capital.