litteris

Litteris is the dative and ablative plural form of the Latin noun littera, meaning a letter in the sense of a character of the alphabet, a written letter, or, more broadly, literature. Littera belongs to the first declension; its nominative singular is littera, the nominative plural litterae, and the genitive plural litterārum. The dative and ablative plural are litterīs (often written as litteris in unmarked text). The form litteris thus appears in classical Latin wherever a dative or ablative plural is required for the noun littera.

The senses of littera include: a single letter of the alphabet; a written document or letter; and, in the plural, literature or learned writings. The plural litterae is more common when the sense is “letters” in general or “literature” as a field (as in litterae humaniores, the humanities). In contrast, litteris is used strictly as a case form and not as a standalone lexical item.

In usage, litteris can appear with prepositions or verbs that govern the ablative or dative, expressing relations such as location, means, or association, for example in phrases like in litterīs (in literature or in the letters). The term survives in modern scholarly language mainly as an etymological root in words such as literature and bibliographic terms, and it appears in Latin inscriptions and texts to indicate writing, learning, or correspondence. See also littera, litterae.