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ranch of mathematics which treats of the relations and properties of quantity by means of letters and other symbols. It is applicable to those relations that are true of every kind of magnitude.

The calamity of the want of the sense of hearing is much alleviated by giving the use of letters. Bp. Horsley.

The repetition of the same letter at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; as in the following lines: - Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness. Milton. Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields. Tennyson.

The first letter in the Greek alphabet, answering to A, and hence used to denote the beginning. In am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Rev. xxii. 13.

The letters of a language arranged in the customary order; the series of letters or signs which form the elements of written language.

Pertaining to, furnished with, expressed by, or in the order of, the letters of the alphabet; as, alphabetic characters, writing, languages, arrangement.

In an alphabetic manner; in the customary order of the letters.

The science of representing spoken sounds by letters.

an amorist to impress the name of his mistress in the dust, or upon the damp earth, with letters fixed upon his shoe. Southey.

Literally, the letters of a word read backwards, but in its usual wider sense, the change or one word or phrase into another by the transposition of its letters. Thus Galenus becomes angelus; William Noy (attorney-general to Charles I., and a laborious man) may be turned into I moyl in law.

To transpose, as the letters of a word, so as to form an anagram. Cudworth.

c/bd), where the segments are to regarded as plus or minus, according to the order of the letters.

Curved somewhat in the form of the letter S. Cussans.

of unknown /or unavowed authorship; as, an anonymous benefactor; an anonymous pamphlet or letter.

The dropping of a letter or syllable from the beginning of a word; e. g., cute for acute.

Shortened by dropping a letter or a syllable from the beginning of a word; as, an aphetic word or form. -- A*phet"ic*al*ly, adv. New Eng. Dict.

A letter, or a combination of letters, employed in spelling a word, but in the pronunciation having no sound. -- Aph*thon"gal, a.

To cut off or drop; as, to apocopate a word, or the last letter, syllable, or part of a word.

The cutting off, or omission, of the last letter, syllable, or part of a word.

r it, by way of amends; -- with for; as, my correspondent apologized for not answering my letter. To apologize for his insolent language. Froude.