lettered

1. 1
   adjective

   Marked or labeled with letters.

   The lettered dividers made it easy to sort the files alphabetically.

   Surveyors planted lettered stakes to mark each plot of land.

   Similarlabeled, marked

   Oppositeunmarked, blank

2. 2
   adjective

   Having a good education, particularly one that includes a university degree.

   The salon attracted lettered guests who could discuss philosophy for hours.

   A lettered judge, she quoted classical texts from memory during the hearing.

   Similareducated, learned, erudite, scholarly, cultured

   Oppositeuneducated, ignorant, unschooled, unlettered

3. 3
   adjective

   Able to read writing made up of letters; literate.

   In that era, lettered servants were valued for handling household correspondence.

   The lettered minority kept the written records for the entire community.

   Similarliterate

   Oppositeilliterate, unlettered

4. 4
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of letter.

   The artist lettered the poster in bold gold script.

   They lettered each banner with the team's name before the parade.

   Note

   Two quite different verbs share this past form. The transitive one belongs to the sign painter: the poster was lettered by hand. The other is American and intransitive, and it means earning a varsity letter: she lettered in track. The painter's participle, placed before a noun, is also where the "marked with letters" adjective comes from.

   She lettered in swimming as a junior.

   He lettered in two sports in high school.

5. 5
   adjective

   Covered in spots or blotched markings whose shapes suggest letters of the alphabet.

   The lettered olive's shell carries squiggles that resemble handwriting.

   Biologists described the lettered patterning running along the snake's back.

   Note

   A naturalist's term, used when a pattern on a living surface looks like script rather than random speckling. It surfaces in common names such as the lettered olive, whose shell carries zigzag marks that read almost like handwriting. Keep it apart from the "marked with letters" meaning: there the letters are real and put there on purpose, while here they are only a resemblance that nature happens to draw.

Showing meanings only. Show all 5