Word.ws English Dictionary

belles lettres

belles lettres is the alternative form of belles-lettres.

Meaning of belles-lettres

Noun

belles-lettres (uncountable)

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

Questions about belles lettres

What is belles lettres the alternative form of?
Belles lettres is the alternative form of belles-lettres.

Words near belles lettres in the dictionary

  1. Belleroses
  2. bellers
  3. belles
  4. belles dames sans merci
  5. belles laides
  6. belles lettres
  7. belles of the ball
  8. belles sabreuses
  9. belles-letters
  10. belles-lettres
  11. belles-lettristic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: belles lettres (page history and authors); belles-lettres (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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