Topic: LITERATURE

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Date:	1300-1400
Language:	Old French
Origin:	Latin litteratura, from litteratus; LITERATE

literature
noun

lit‧e‧ra‧ture W2 See pronunciation table in "How to use dictionary" pages

[uncountable]

1AL books, plays, poems etc that people think are important and good:

Look up a word starting with D or S for samples of headword or sentence pronunciations on the LDOCE CD-ROM

He has read many of the major works of literature.

Italian literature

2TCN all the books, articles, etc on a particular subject

literature on

literature on the history of science

in the literature

Several cases of mercury poisoning have been recorded in the literature.

3 printed information produced by people who want to sell you something or tell you about something:

sales literature

WORD FOCUS: book

a book about imaginary events: novel, thriller, mystery, horror story, love story, detective story, whodunit
books about imaginary events in general: fiction, science fiction, romantic fiction, crime fiction, chick lit informal
famous or important novels, poems etc : literature
books about real events: non-fiction
a book that gives information: reference book, encyclopedia, textbook
a book about someone's life: biography, autobiography, journal, diary
someone who writes books: writer, author, novelist
a book with a hard cover: hardback /hardcover American English
a book with a cover made of paper or card: paperback

➔ See also book

Topic: LITERATURE

Explore LITERATURE Topic

literature

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