sign, indicator, letter
Quenya
tengwa
letter
tengwa
noun. (written) letter; sign, token, indicator, (written) letter; sign, token, indicator; [ᴹQ.] writing, grammar
tengwa
noun. sign
lúva
noun. bow (in forming tengwar), bight, bend, curve
A word Tolkien used to describe the “bow” of tengwar in Appendix E of The Lord of the Rings (LotR/1118). Elsewhere he indicated it was a general word for a “bend, bow, bight, curve” (PE17/122, 168). Tolkien variously derived this word from the roots √LUB or √(N)DUB; see those entries for discussion. He also specified that lúva was not a bow for shooting (PE17/122), as opposed to [ᴹQ.] qinga given elsewhere as a shooting bow (Ety/KWIG).
sarat
letter
sarat (pl. sarati given) noun "letter", any individual significant mark, used of the letters of Rúmil after the invention of Fëanor's tengwar (WJ:396). Cf. sarmë.
narwë
sign, token
[narwë (and short nar, unless this is an incomplete form) noun "sign, token"] (VT45:37)
taina
sign
#taina (2) noun "sign", isolated from Tainacolli *"Sign-bearer" MR:385
tanna
sign, token
tanna (1) noun "sign, token" (MR:385, PE17:186), also tanwa (PE17:186)
tanwa
sign, token
tanwa noun "sign, token" (Tolkien marked this word with a query, but it is not clearly rejected). Also tanna (#1). (PE17:186)
tehta
mark, sign
tehta noun "mark, sign" (TEK, VT39:17, Appendix E), especially diacritics denoting vowels in Fëanorian writing (pl. tehtar is attested); these diacritics are explicitly called ómatehtar "vowel-marks", q.v.
tengwa (pl. tengwar is attested) (1) noun "letter" Tengwa (ñ) is defined as "any one visible sign representing (theoretically) any one audible teñgwe" (phoneme) (VT39:17). In non-technical usage tengwa was equivalent to "consonant", since only the consonants were full signs (WJ:396, TEK). In the Etymologies, tengwa was apparently emended from tengwë (VT46:17).