open letter

noun

: a published letter of protest or appeal usually addressed to an individual but intended for the general public

Examples of open letter in a Sentence

In an open letter to the company, a citizens' group implored company executives to reconsider their decision to close the factory.

Recent Examples on the Web

More than 1,000 parents signed an open letter to the school board advocating for greater parental involvement in school closure discussions. —Daniel Lempres, Sacbee.com, 9 June 2026

Lapid endorsed the open letter in a statement to the French news agency AFP. —Zac Ntim, Deadline, 9 June 2026

Late last month, Stankova and Aganagic, along with three other Berkeley professors, published an open letter arguing for the reinstatement of those testing requirements—at least for any students seeking science, technology, engineering, and mathematics degrees. —Idrees Kahloon, The Atlantic, 9 June 2026

Last June, hundreds of staffers at the National Institutes of Health broke rank in an unprecedented move and published an open letter of dissent to agency Director Jay Bhattacharya. —Anil Oza, STAT, 9 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1898, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for open letter

• carburetter
• carburettor
• abettor
• newsletter
• typesetter
• better
• bettor
• debtor
• fetter
• getter
• netter
• petter

Kids Definition

open letter

noun

: a letter (as one addressed to an official) for the public to see and printed in a newspaper or magazine