Dominical Letters
Preserved but no longer current.
The letters which denote the Sunday or dies dommica. The first seven letters of the alphabet are employed; if January 1st is a Sunday the dominical letter for the year will be A, if the 2nd is a Sunday it will be B, if the 3rd, C, and so on. In Leap years there are two dominical letters, one for the period up to February 29th, and the other for the rest of the year.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Dominical Letters” mean?
The letters which denote the Sunday or dies dommica. The first seven letters of the alphabet are employed; if January 1st is a Sunday the dominical letter for the year will be A, if the 2nd is a Sunday it will be B, if the 3rd, C, and so on. In Leap years there are two dominical letters, one for the period up to February 29th, and the other for the rest of the year.
Is “Dominical Letters” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.