Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Occupied with, or pertaining to, belles-lettres.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or having the characteristics of belles-lettres
  • adjective Written or appreciated for aesthetic value rather than content

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective written and regarded for aesthetic value rather than content

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From belletrist +‎ -ic.

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Examples

  • The belletristic form to which The Spectator belongs is integral to implementing this future for philosophy.

    Post-Secular Conviviality 2008

  • The legacy, however, of this controversy still clings to London like sticky pitch: all of his Northland sagas are labelled as "literature for children and youth" whereas Martin Eden and other "mature" fiction is catalogued and sold as "fine" or belletristic literature.

    A Bibliographical Essay 2007

  • On one hand I am too severe, holding a reductive and even dismissive view of the value of literature and literary study; on the other, I am too indulgent, giving in to the same basic background of general belletristic humanism covering the same set of books.

    The Ghost Writer 2009

  • "It was written with newspapers before me," Southey recalled, "as fast as newspaper could be put into blank verse" (LR 1. 3n), and Woodring offers that "Few belletristic works signed by major writers can ever have come hotter from the chronicled events" (195).

    Introduction 2007

  • Participation in this project remains high, with contributors unearthing older favorites from all over the belletristic spectrum.

    Archive 2008-07-01 2008

  • This book, he says, “celebrates … critical writing that honors the best belletristic tradition of our nonfiction prose” and therefore he has focused on “film criticism as an art in itself the magnet for strong, elegant, eloquent, enjoyable writing.”

    Another 5001 Nights at the Movies 2006

  • This book, he says, “celebrates … critical writing that honors the best belletristic tradition of our nonfiction prose” and therefore he has focused on “film criticism as an art in itself the magnet for strong, elegant, eloquent, enjoyable writing.”

    Another 5001 Nights at the Movies 2006

  • This book, he says, “celebrates … critical writing that honors the best belletristic tradition of our nonfiction prose” and therefore he has focused on “film criticism as an art in itself the magnet for strong, elegant, eloquent, enjoyable writing.”

    Another 5001 Nights at the Movies 2006

  • Her belletristic analysis of bin Laden as "the American president's dark doppelganger" crosses over into Sillyville.

    The Voices Of Dissent 2007

  • “The culture has become very journalistic, as opposed to one that was belletristic,” she said.

    Vagina Mama-Log 2006

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