nonletter
|non-let-ter|
🇺🇸
/ˈnɑnˌlɛtər/
🇬🇧
/ˈnɒnˌlɛtə/
not a letter (non-alphabetic character)
Etymology
'nonletter' is a modern English formation from the prefix 'non-' plus the noun 'letter'; 'non-' is used to negate and ultimately comes from Latin 'non' meaning 'not', while 'letter' comes from Latin 'littera'.
'non-' has been used in English as a negating prefix since Middle English (derived from Latin 'non'), and 'letter' entered English from Old French 'lettre' which came from Latin 'littera'; the compound 'nonletter' is a transparent, recent coinage formed by combining these elements in modern English.
Originally the elements meant 'not' and 'letter' respectively; the compound's meaning has remained literal: 'something that is not a letter', used especially for describing characters in writing or computing.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a character or symbol that is not a letter of an alphabet (e.g., digits, punctuation, spaces, symbols).
Treat a space or punctuation mark as a nonletter when validating the input.
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Antonyms
Adjective 1
not a letter; relating to or consisting of characters that are not letters.
Remove nonletter characters before processing the filename.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Last updated: 2025/09/27 23:13