Booklet

How to spell booklet

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce booklet

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does booklet mean?

1. nounA small thin book with paper covers, usually giving information or instructions.

Booklet in a sentence

• The dishwasher came with a booklet explaining the wash cycles.

• The museum handed each visitor a booklet describing the main exhibits.

Where does booklet come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a straightforward compound of the noun 'book' and the diminutive ending '-let'. 'Book' descends from the Old English 'boc', a word for a written document or volume that may itself be tied to the beech tree, since early runic inscriptions were sometimes cut into beechwood. The suffix '-let' came into English from Old French, where '-et' marked something small, later reinforced by the '-l-' of words like 'streamlet' and 'piglet'; over time '-let' settled in as the standard English way to form a diminutive meaning 'a little one'. So a 'booklet' is literally a little book, and the term came into common use in the nineteenth century for slim, paper-bound publications. The spelling trap is mild: writers occasionally double the 't' or drop one 'o', but the parts 'book' plus 'let' are both familiar, which keeps it stable.

How the word is built

• book (from Old English boc: book)
• -let (diminutive suffix: a small one)