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Webster 1913 Edition

Belles-lettres

‖

Belles-let′tres

,

Noun.

pl.

[F.]

Polite or elegant literature; the humanities; – used somewhat vaguely for literary works in which imagination and taste are predominant.

Definition 2024

belles-lettres

belles-lettres

See also: belles lettres

English

Alternative forms

belles lettres
belles-letters
belle-lettre

Noun

belles-lettres ‎(uncountable)

(obsolete) The humanities.
(archaic) Literature, particularly light compositions valued for their aesthetic properties.
- a. 1854, Henry Reed in the 1878 ed. of Lectures on English Literature, p. 34:
  That vapid, half naturalized term ‘belles-lettres,’ which has had some currency as a substitute for the term ‘literature.’
(archaic) Literary studies, particularly literary aesthetics.

Related terms

belletristic

Translations

humanities — see humanities

belles-lettres

Arabic: أَدَب (ar) m ‎(ʾadab)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 純文學 (zh), 纯文学 (zh) ‎(chúnwénxué), 美文 (zh) ‎(měiwén), 詩禮 (zh), 诗礼 (zh) ‎(shīlǐ)
Czech: beletrie (cs) f
Dutch: bellettrie (nl) f
Esperanto: beletro, beletristiko
Estonian: ilukirjandus, belletristika
Finnish: kaunokirjallisuus (fi)
French: belles-lettres (fr) f pl
Georgian: ბელეტრისტიკა ‎(beleṭrisṭiḳa)
German: Belles Lettres f pl, schöne Literatur f, Belletristik (de) f

Hungarian: szépirodalom (hu)
Irish: léann liteartha m
Japanese: 純文学 ‎(じゅんぶんがく, junbungaku)
Korean: 순문학 ‎(sunmunhak)
Polish: beletrystyka (pl) f, literatura piękna f
Portuguese: belas-letras f pl
Romanian: beletristică (ro) f
Russian: худо́жественная литерату́ра f ‎(xudóžestvennaja literatúra), беллетри́стика (ru) f ‎(belletrístika)
Ukrainian: худо́жня літерату́ра f ‎(xudóžnja literatúra), белетри́стика (uk) f ‎(beletrýstyka)
Vietnamese: văn chương (vi)

References

"belles-lettres, n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary, 1887.