Word.ws English Dictionary

bookstaves

bookstaves is the plural of bookstave.

bookstaves is the alternative plural of bookstaff.

Meaning of bookstaff

Noun

bookstaff (plural bookstaves or bookstaffs)

  1. (archaic, archaic or puristic) A letter, a letter of the alphabet, a written character.
    • Brother Ormin cautions transcribers to follow his spelling exactly —And tat he looke well that he (And that he look well that he), An bookstaff write tweis (A letter write twice), Eywhere then it upo this book (Wherever then it upon this book) Is written o that wise (Is written on that wise), For...1870, The American Educational Monthly - Volume 7, page 449

Questions about bookstaves

What is bookstaves the plural of?
Bookstaves is the plural of bookstave.

Words near bookstaves in the dictionary

  1. bookstall
  2. bookstalls
  3. bookstand
  4. bookstands
  5. bookstave
  6. bookstaves
  7. bookstock
  8. bookstop
  9. bookstops
  10. bookstore
  11. bookstorekeeper

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bookstaves (page history and authors); bookstaff (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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Cite this entry: “bookstaves.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bookstaves. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.