Definitions
Wiktionary
- : (idiomatic) Before the term was coined; used after a term applied anachronistically.
Etymologies
- From French avant la lettre ("before the letter") (Wiktionary)
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘avant la lettre’.
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permanent foreign residents in English
Foreign words and phrases that are perfectly acceptable to use in formal English writing, but still maintain the aura of foreignness. They do not enjoy full citizenship, but remain "alien residents...
prima facie, a priori, a posteriori, avant la lettre, corpus delicti, l'esprit de l'esc..., sans-culotte, memento mori, gesamtkunstwerk, amour propre, guru, deja vu and 25 more...
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Literary critical terms
cathexis, catachresis, polyvocal, alterity, liminality, liminal, limn, erasure, metonymic, intertextual, intrapoetic, contradistinction and 66 more...
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Daily
thaumaturgy, lagniappe, gabble, Cytherean, samizdat, lixiviate, quintal, Rabelaisian, prescind, duende, deglutition, mancinism and 74 more...
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encountered while fact-checking and c...
great words come across doing freelance fact-checking and copyediting work.
megabat, chiroptera, bathyscaphe, serac, icefall, lamellae, haltere, homologate, gallinaceous, gorgonin, peloton, patinodrome and 59 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for avant la lettre.

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