Majuscule

Majuscules or capital letters (in the Roman alphabet: A, B, C, ...) are one type of case in a writing system. Compare minuscule (a, b, c, ...). Majuscules and minuscules are also known as uppercase (or upper case) and lowercase (or lower case) letters, respectively.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some languages make no distinction between majuscules and minuscules. Latin was originally written using only one set of letters, those which we now call capitals.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In alphabets with a case distinction, majuscules are used for:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• capitalization,
• acronyms,
• better legibility, for example on signs and in labeling, and
• in some languages.

Majuscules sometimes are used for typographical emphasis in Internet text in place of bolding or italicizing. However, long spans of text in all uppercase are harder to read because of the absence of ascenders and descenders found in lowercase letters, which better aid recognition. In printed material where acronyms require a string of uppercase letters, they are frequently reduced in size by a point or more to make them easier to read. (By contrast, the "small print" in legal documents is often capitalized to make it harder to read.) In electronic communications, it is often considered in very poor "netiquette" to type this way because it can be harder to read and because typing in all majuscules can be seen as tantamount to shouting.

Majuscule: Usage ►



 

Roman alphabet: REDIRECT Latin alphabet...

Case: Case can refer to:...

Writing system: A writing system, also called a script, is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language....