lowercase

• (noun): lower case
• (adjective and verb): lower-case

From the noun phrase lower case, which itself consists of an adjective modifying a noun; when used as a noun adjunct then, to make its syntactical function clearer/simpler, it is written as a single word or with a hyphen as a sort of chunking.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈləʊ.ə(ɹ)ˌkeɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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lowercase (uncountable)

1. Alternative spelling of lower case

lowercase (not comparable)

1. in lower case

• lowercased
• minuscule

• uppercase

lowercase (third-person singular simple present lowercases, present participle lowercasing, simple past and past participle lowercased)

1. (transitive) To convert (text) to lower case.
   • 1990 April 28, Harry Hay, “Identifying As Gay ― Here's The Key”, in Gay Community News, page 5:

     Sister Jadallah apologizes for being unable to bring her readers facts and figures on Palestinian Lesbianism (forgive my capital "L" in Lesbianism, but like my Black brothers I cannot bring myself to lower-casing our recently empowering accoutrements of our Gay identities)

   • 2000, Tom Miller, Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink: Offbeat Travels Through America’s Southwest, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISBN, page 216:

     I never asked Rob e. Hanson why he lowercased his middle initial; I suppose he figured a man just shouldn’t accumulate too much capital.