See red letter day in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "An allusion to the practice, dating to classical antiquity, of marking important days in red on calendars.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "red letter days",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "red-letter day",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
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"args": {
"head": "red letter day"
},
"expansion": "red letter day (plural red letter days)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "69 31",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
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{
"_dis": "73 27",
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"name": "Terms with Catalan translations",
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},
{
"_dis": "73 27",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "71 29",
"kind": "other",
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "75 25",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "73 27",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "74 26",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Norwegian Nynorsk translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "78 22",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Russian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "74 26",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Swedish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1825, Christian Gleaner and Domestic Magazine, Volume 2, page 161:",
"text": "The only red-letter day occurring in July, is the twenty-fifth, called St James's Day.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1893, Thomas De Quincey, “Conversation and Coleridge”, in Alexander H. Japp, editor, The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, volume II, London: William Heinemann:",
"text": "But the monsters who interrupt men in the middle of a sentence are to be found everywhere; and they are always practising. Red-letter days or black-letter days, festival or fast, makes no difference to them.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A day marked in red on calendars; a church feast day."
],
"id": "en-red_letter_day-en-noun-SKQDmT5j",
"links": [
[
"feast day",
"feast day"
]
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "66 34",
"word": "Scarlet Day"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Coordinate term: black letter day"
},
{
"text": "Monday was a red letter day for her. She accomplished a lot and had fun doing it.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "We saw losses for days in a row, but Black Tuesday was the worst red letter day of them all.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1975, John Ankenbruck, Twentieth Century History of Fort Wayne, page 286:",
"text": "\"In the meantime, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre at Chicago was a red-letter day in the gangster wars.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Clyde Wilton, Wilton's Wit, iUniverse, page 3:",
"text": "So I assume that we all have some red letter days that are precious to our memories—maybe a first date, a wedding, a gift, a word of encouragement, a vacation, a graduation or a trip to an interesting place.\nI had one of those red letter days when I was a young boy, perhaps five or six years old.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"text": "2010, Eric Braun, Doris Day, Hachette, Revised and updated edition, unnumbered page,\nThat was, indeed, a red-letter day in my filmgoing life, and a red-letter day in my literary life was when I was asked to write a new biography of Doris Day."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A particularly significant day; a day of personal or sectarian celebration."
],
"id": "en-red_letter_day-en-noun-lcGcA4nH",
"links": [
[
"significant",
"significant"
],
[
"sectarian",
"sectarian"
],
[
"celebration",
"celebration"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A particularly significant day; a day of personal or sectarian celebration."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "day of days"
},
{
"word": "red letter date"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "diada"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dàrìzǐ",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "大日子"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "lǐchéngbēi",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "里程碑"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "merkkipäivä"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "piros betűs nap"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "piros betűs ünnep"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "merkedag"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "merkedag"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "pámjatnyj denʹ",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "па́мятный день"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "prázdnik",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "пра́здник"
},
{
"_dis1": "39 61",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "röd dag"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-red letter day.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/aa/En-au-red_letter_day.ogg/En-au-red_letter_day.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/En-au-red_letter_day.ogg"
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"wikipedia": [
"red letter day"
],
"word": "red letter day"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Catalan translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with Hungarian translations",
"Terms with Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations",
"Terms with Norwegian Nynorsk translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Swedish translations"
],
"etymology_text": "An allusion to the practice, dating to classical antiquity, of marking important days in red on calendars.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "red letter days",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
"form": "red-letter day",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"head": "red letter day"
},
"expansion": "red letter day (plural red letter days)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "Scarlet Day"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1825, Christian Gleaner and Domestic Magazine, Volume 2, page 161:",
"text": "The only red-letter day occurring in July, is the twenty-fifth, called St James's Day.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1893, Thomas De Quincey, “Conversation and Coleridge”, in Alexander H. Japp, editor, The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, volume II, London: William Heinemann:",
"text": "But the monsters who interrupt men in the middle of a sentence are to be found everywhere; and they are always practising. Red-letter days or black-letter days, festival or fast, makes no difference to them.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A day marked in red on calendars; a church feast day."
],
"links": [
[
"feast day",
"feast day"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Coordinate term: black letter day"
},
{
"text": "Monday was a red letter day for her. She accomplished a lot and had fun doing it.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "We saw losses for days in a row, but Black Tuesday was the worst red letter day of them all.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1975, John Ankenbruck, Twentieth Century History of Fort Wayne, page 286:",
"text": "\"In the meantime, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre at Chicago was a red-letter day in the gangster wars.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Clyde Wilton, Wilton's Wit, iUniverse, page 3:",
"text": "So I assume that we all have some red letter days that are precious to our memories—maybe a first date, a wedding, a gift, a word of encouragement, a vacation, a graduation or a trip to an interesting place.\nI had one of those red letter days when I was a young boy, perhaps five or six years old.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"text": "2010, Eric Braun, Doris Day, Hachette, Revised and updated edition, unnumbered page,\nThat was, indeed, a red-letter day in my filmgoing life, and a red-letter day in my literary life was when I was asked to write a new biography of Doris Day."
}
],
"glosses": [
"A particularly significant day; a day of personal or sectarian celebration."
],
"links": [
[
"significant",
"significant"
],
[
"sectarian",
"sectarian"
],
[
"celebration",
"celebration"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) A particularly significant day; a day of personal or sectarian celebration."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "day of days"
},
{
"word": "red letter date"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-red letter day.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/aa/En-au-red_letter_day.ogg/En-au-red_letter_day.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/En-au-red_letter_day.ogg"
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"translations": [
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "diada"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "dàrìzǐ",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "大日子"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "lǐchéngbēi",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "里程碑"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "merkkipäivä"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "piros betűs nap"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"word": "piros betűs ünnep"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "merkedag"
},
{
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "merkedag"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "pámjatnyj denʹ",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "па́мятный день"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "prázdnik",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "пра́здник"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "day of special significance",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "röd dag"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"red letter day"
],
"word": "red letter day"
}
Download raw JSONL data for red letter day meaning in English (5.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (ce0be54 and f2e72e5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.