Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or associated with letters or the writing of letters.
  • adjective Being in the form of a letter.
  • adjective Carried on by or composed of letters.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to epistles or letters; suitable to letters and correspondence; familiar: as, an epistolary style.
  • Contained in letters; carried on by letters.
  • noun A book formerly in use in the Western Church, containing the liturgical epistles.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining to epistles or letters; suitable to letters and correspondence.
  • adjective Contained in letters; carried on by letters.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of or relating to letters, or the writing of letters
  • adjective carried on by written correspondence
  • adjective in the manner of written correspondence

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective written in the form of or carried on by letters or correspondence

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin epistolāris, from epistola, epistle; see epistle.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1650s, from French épistolaire, from Latin epistolaris, from Latin epistola ("letter") (English epistle), from Ancient Greek ἐπιστολή (epistolē) from ἐπιστέλλω (epistellō, "I send a message") from ἐπί (epi, "upon") + στέλλω (stellō, "I prepare, send").

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Examples

Comments

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  • So that's what epistle means.

    November 2, 2007

  • but he has kept his hand in as an epistolary politician.

    August 23, 2011

  • relating to letters,

    March 24, 2013