What's the difference between epistle and epistolary?

Epistle


Definition:

  • (n.) A writing directed or sent to a person or persons; a written communication; a letter; -- applied usually to formal, didactic, or elegant letters.
  • (n.) One of the letters in the New Testament which were addressed to their Christian brethren by Apostles.
  • (v. t.) To write; to communicate in a letter or by writing.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Tristram Hunt’s resignation letter reads like the kind of fantasy epistle people dream of sending the boss on a Friday morning after another awful week at the office.
  • (2) Byrne's brief epistle was redolent of a similar valedictory message left by Reginald Maudling to James Callaghan after Labour won a narrow victory in the 1964 general election.
  • (3) In the words of Paul, the inventor of Christianity (or whoever really wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews), "without shedding of blood, there is no remission".
  • (4) Later, an extraordinary epistle, which deserves to be read in its entirety, emerges from Banda's office, accusing Madonna of, among other things, exaggerating her charitable endeavours and "blackmailing" Malawi by demanding gratitude and star treatment.
  • (5) His credo is "Home Sweet Home", and his greatest achievements a witty and angry letter to the laundry service and the return dispatch of some bad eggs accompanied by another scornful epistle.
  • (6) We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose,” said the 44-year-old, quoting from the Epistle to the Romans.

Epistolary


Definition:

  • (a.) Pertaining to epistles or letters; suitable to letters and correspondence; as, an epistolary style.
  • (a.) Contained in letters; carried on by letters.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The Matchmaker is a whimsical but miraculous piece – a staged version of the John B Keane epistolary novella that charts the efforts of a decent man to marry off achingly lonely country folk in the teeth of priestly disapproval.
  • (2) Wodehouse's correspondence is often clad in the epistolary equivalent of Bertie's heliotrope pyjamas, carefully buttoned up to disguise true feeling.
  • (3) Some of these were less well received than his earlier work, but La Silla del Águila (The Eagle's Throne, 2003), an epistolary novel comically taking apart the complexities and absurdities of Mexican political life, was seen by many critics as a return to form.
  • (4) A rare and expensive lot up for auction on eBay this week provides epistolary evidence that the man-who-will-be-king was once a hot-blooded young sailor with an eye for the ladies and a knack for flirtatious correspondence.
  • (5) After the first test performance, his friend Irving reportedly told Stoker that he never wanted to see the play again, prompting its re-imagining as the epistolary novel.
  • (6) Among Pacchioni's works, the "Dissertatio epistolaris de glandulis conglobatis Durae Meningis humanae" (1705) is particularly well known and contains the first description of arachnoidal granulations.
  • (7) In a letter to Marsh four days before his death he had written: "It's really my being lucky enough to bag an inch of candle that incites me to this pitch of punctual epistolary.

Words possibly related to "epistolary"