upper-case letter n 1: one of the large alphabetic characters used as the first letter in writing or printing proper names and sometimes for emphasis; "printers once kept the type for capitals and for small letters in separate cases; capitals were kept in the upper half of the type case and so became known as upper-case letters" [syn: {capital}, {capital letter}, {uppercase}, {upper-case letter}, {majuscule}] [ant: {lower-case letter}, {lowercase}, {minuscule}, {small letter}]