\Lit"er*a*ture\, n. [F. litt['e]rature, L.
litteratura, literatura, learning, grammar, writing, fr.
littera, litera, letter. See {Letter}.]
1. Learning; acquaintance with letters or books.
2. The collective body of literary productions, embracing the
   entire results of knowledge and fancy preserved in
   writing; also, the whole body of literary productions or
   writings upon a given subject, or in reference to a
   particular science or branch of knowledge, or of a given
   country or period; as, the literature of Biblical
   criticism; the literature of chemistry.
3. The class of writings distinguished for beauty of style or
   expression, as poetry, essays, or history, in distinction
   from scientific treatises and works which contain positive
   knowledge; belles-lettres.
4. The occupation, profession, or business of doing literary
   work. --Lamp.
Syn: Science; learning; erudition; belles-lettres.
Usage: See {Science}. -- {Literature}, {Learning},
       {Erudition}. Literature, in its widest sense, embraces
       all compositions in writing or print which preserve
       the results of observation, thought, or fancy; but
       those upon the positive sciences (mathematics, etc.)
       are usually excluded. It is often confined, however,
       to belles-lettres, or works of taste and sentiment, as
       poetry, eloquence, history, etc., excluding abstract
       discussions and mere erudition. A man of literature
       (in this narrowest sense) is one who is versed in
       belles-lettres; a man of learning excels in what is
       taught in the schools, and has a wide extent of
       knowledge, especially, in respect to the past; a man
       of erudition is one who is skilled in the more
       recondite branches of learned inquiry.
             The origin of all positive science and
             philosophy, as well as of all literature and
             art, in the forms in which they exist in
             civilized Europe, must be traced to the Greeks.
                                               --Sir G.
                                               Lewis.
             Learning thy talent is, but mine is sense.
                                               --Prior.
             Some gentlemen, abounding in their university
             erudition, fill their sermons with philosophical
             terms.                            --Swift.