Main Entry: braille

Pronunciation: \ˈbrā(ə)l\

Function: noun

Usage: often capitalized

: a system of writing for the blind that uses characters made up of raised dots

[braille illustration]

—braille transitive verb, brailled; braill·ing

Braille \brȧy\ Louis (1809–1852), French inventor and teacher. Braille was blind and while at a school for the blind in Paris met Charles Barbier. Barbier had devised a system of writing for the blind in which simple messages coded in dots were embossed on cardboard. In 1824 Braille started work on adapting this system, developing a system in which a six-dot code represented letters and characters. He published treatises on his system in 1829 and 1837.