Literature, most generically, is any body of written works. More restrictively, literature writing is considered to be an art form, or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, often due to deploying language in ways that differ from ordinary usage.
The death of Dr. Hudson is a loss to the republick of letters.
William King, letter (Jan. 7, 1719). Same phrase occurs in the Spectator. Commonwealth of letters is used by Addison, Spectator, No. 529. Nov. 6, 1712.
Giant penguins bigger than most humans roamed the Earth millions of years ago. Analysis of 37-million-year-old penguin fossils by a team of researchers from the La Plata Museum in Argentina shows that the so-called ‘colossus penguin’ stood at staggering 2 metres from toe to beak tip.