lower case

See also: lowercase, and lower-case

English

Alternative forms

• lowercase

Etymology

Named for the original arrangement in typesetting, where the drawer or case containing minuscule letters would traditionally be located below the one containing capital letters.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈləʊ.ə(ɹ)ˌkeɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

lower case (uncountable)

1. The minuscule or small letters (a, b, c, as opposed to the uppercase or capital letters, A, B, C).

   The strongest passwords are those which mix numbers and letters, upper case and lower case, and symbols.

Usage notes

Pedantically, lowercase and uppercase describe type, minuscule and majuscule handwriting, while small and capital are more generally applied to any letters, including painted, engraved, etc.

Synonyms

• small letter
• minuscule

Antonyms

• uppercase, upper case
• majuscule
• capital, cap
• big letter
• block letter

Coordinate terms

• ALL CAPS
• AlTeRnaTinG cApS
• CamelCase
• Initial Caps
• Sentence case
• Title Case

Derived terms

• lower-case (adjective)

Related terms

• case-dependent, case dependent
• caseless
• case-sensitive, case sensitive
• case-insensitive, case insensitive
• mixed-case, mixed case
• small capitals, small caps
• uppercase, upper case

Translations

lower case / lowercase (as a collective noun) or lower case letters (in the plural)

• Catalan: minúscules (ca) f pl (adjective, but sometimes used like a noun)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 小寫／小写 (zh) (xiǎoxiě), 小寫字母／小写字母 (zh) (xiǎoxiě zìmǔ)

• Danish: små bogstaver n pl
• Dutch: kleine letters f pl, klein schrift n, kleinschrift n (cf. grootschrift)
• Esperanto: minusklaro (collective), minuskloj
• Finnish: gemena (fi), pienaakkonen (fi), pieni kirjain
• French: minuscules (fr) f pl, bas-de-casse (fr) m pl, , bas de casse (fr) m pl
• Georgian: ქვედა რეგისტრი (kveda regisṭri), მცირე ასოები (mcire asoebi), პატარა ასოები (ṗaṭara asoebi), ნუსხური (nusxuri)
• German: Kleinschrift f, Kleinschreibung (de) f, Kleinbuchstaben (de) m pl, gemeine Buchstaben m pl, Gemeinbuchstaben m pl
• Hungarian: kisbetű (hu), minuszkula
• Icelandic: litlir stafir m pl
• Italian: minuscoli (it) m pl
• Japanese: 小文字 (ja) (こもじ, komoji)
• Korean: 소문자 (ko) (somunja)
• Manx: lettryn beggey m pl
• Maori: pūriki
• Portuguese: minúscules f pl
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} litere mici f pl
• Russian: стро́чные бу́квы f pl (stróčnyje búkvy), ни́жний реги́стр m (nížnij regístr) (computing), минуску́л (ru) m (minuskúl)
• Spanish: minúsculas (es) f pl
• Swedish: gemener c pl, små bokstäver c pl
• Volapük: minudem (collective), minuds