lowercase

/ˌˈloʊər ˌkeɪs/

/ˈlʌʊwəkeɪs/

Lowercase letters aren't capitalized — they're the smaller versions of each letter. For example, this is a lowercase "a" while this its big brother: the capital "A." Sometimes people get sloppy and write in all lowercase letters on email.

In English, we capitalize (or use uppercase letters) when we write someone's name, a book's title, or the name of a country. Otherwise, our writing is full of lowercase letters. Every letter in the alphabet has an uppercase and lowercase version, the latter being mainly smaller and shorter on a printed page. In typography, capital letters are all the same height, while the size of lowercase letters varies (think of an a compared with a j, for example).

Definitions of lowercase

1. adjective

   relating to small (not capitalized) letters that were kept in the lower half of a compositor's type case
   “lowercase letters”

   synonyms:

   little, miniscule, minuscule, small

   lowercase

   miniscule, minuscular, minuscule

   of or relating to a small cursive script developed from uncial; 7th to 9th centuries

   antonyms:

   uppercase

   relating to capital letters which were kept in the top half of a compositor's type case

   capital, great, majuscule

   uppercase

   majuscule

   of or relating to a style of writing characterized by somewhat rounded capital letters; 4th to 8th centuries
2. noun

   the characters that were once kept in bottom half of a compositor's type case
   synonyms: lower-case letter, miniscule, minuscule, small letter

   antonyms:

   uppercase

   one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis

   type of:

   character, grapheme, graphic symbol

   a written symbol that is used to represent speech