/lit"euhr euh cheuhr, -choor', li"treuh-/ , n.
1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays.
2. the entire body of writings of a specific language, period, people, etc.: the literature of England.
3. the writings dealing with a particular subject: the literature of ornithology.
4. the profession of a writer or author.
5. literary work or production.
6. any kind of printed material, as circulars, leaflets, or handbills: literature describing company products.
7. Archaic. polite learning; literary culture; appreciation of letters and books.
[ 1375-1425; late ME litterature litteratura grammar. See LITERATE, -URE ]
Syn. 1. LITERATURE, BELLES-LETTRES, LETTERS refer to artistic writings worthy of being remembered. In the broadest sense, LITERATURE includes any type of writings on any subject: the literature of medicine; usually, however, it means the body of artistic writings of a country or period that are characterized by beauty of expression and form and by universality of intellectual and emotional appeal: English literature of the 16th century. BELLES-LETTRES is a more specific term for writings of a light, elegant, or excessively refined character: His talent is not for scholarship but for belles-lettres. LETTERS (rare today outside of certain fixed phrases) refers to literature as a domain of study or creation: a man of letters.