letter opener

English

A letter-opener

Alternative forms

• letter-opener

Noun

letter opener (plural letter openers)

1. Any of several devices for opening letters, either by breaking wax seals or (as is usually the case today) by cutting open their envelopes.
   1. A device shaped like a fixed-blade knife, usually with a blunt edge; the blunt edge does not slice the envelope so much as precisely tear it.

      Coordinate term: paperknife (sometimes broadly synonymous)

   2. The same sort of device but with a sharpened edge, designed to appeal to customers who enjoy a sharpened one (regardless of whether or not it truly outperforms the nonsharp counterpart).
   3. A device incorporating a small razor-style blade in the crotch of a U-shaped plastic handle; it slices the envelope while being, like a safety razor, unlikely to cut the user accidentally.

Related terms

• letterbox
• letter carrier

 

Translations

knifelike device

• Afrikaans: briewemes
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: tallapapers m, obrecartes m
• Chinese: please add this translation if you can
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: briefopener (nl) m
• Finnish: paperiveitsi (fi)
• French: coupe-papier (fr) m
• German: Brieföffner (de) m
• Greek: χαρτοκόπτης (el) m (chartokóptis)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: papírvágó kés, levélbontó kés
• Ido: paperokultelo (io)
• Irish: scian pháipéir f
• Italian: tagliacarte (it) m
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: ноже за писма n (nože za pisma)
• Polish: nóż do otwierania listów m, nóż do otwierania kopert m
• Romanian: tăietor de hârtie n, deschizător de scrisori n
• Russian: нож для вскры́тия конве́ртов m (nož dlja vskrýtija konvértov), нож для вскры́тия пи́сем m (nož dlja vskrýtija písem), нож для конве́ртов m (nož dlja konvértov), нож для пи́сем m (nož dlja písem), разрезно́й но́жик m (razreznój nóžik)
• Serbo-Croatian: please add this translation if you can
• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: abrecartas (es) m
• Swedish: brevöppnare c, brevkniv (sv) c, papperskniv c
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: zarf açacağı
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• letter opener on Wikipedia.Wikipedia