Meanings
- archaicpluralplural onlyArchaic form of letters patent.
(which I have kept as carefully as I would Letters Patents, ſince they intitle me to what I value more than titles of honour.)
1753, Alexander Pope, The Works of Alexander Pope Eſq., volume VII, London: J. and P. Knapton, page 1762 more examples
The letters patents of king Henry the ſeuenth granted vnto Iohn Cabot and his three ſonnes, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, for the discouerie of new and vnknowen lands.
1589, Richard Hakluyt, “Iohn Cabots Patent”, in The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC, page 509If you do wrongfully ſeize Herford's right, / call in his Letters Patents that he hath / By his Atturneyes generall, to ſue[…]
1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 29, column 2
Cite this entry
letters patents. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/letters%20patents
“letters patents.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/letters%20patents. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “letters patents,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/letters%20patents.
Source: letters patents on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.