Dictionary of English - case, upper and lower

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These are the two possible forms taken by letters of the alphabet in typescript: capital letters (upper case) and small letters (lower case). Capitals are used to begin proper nouns: John; Concorde; Dr Smith; at the beginning of a sentence: The cat sat on the mat; at the beginning of a sentence of direct speech: He said: 'Come here!'); and for the principal words in a title: Far from the Madding Crowd.

In the days when typesetting was done by hand, printers used to keep letters in a low case, near to hand; the less often used capitals were stored in a higher (upper) case.

Red and white are the colours of Bohemia, dating back to the 13th century. Blue represents Moravia. Unlike that of the Slovak Republic, the Czech flag is not based on the pan-Slav colours. Effective date: 1 January 1993. >>