abjad

[ ab-jad ]

nounLinguistics.
  1. a system of writing, as in Hebrew and Arabic scripts, in which each symbol represents a consonantal sound, with few or no vowels being represented in the basic characters.: See also abugida.

Origin of abjad

1
From Arabic ʾa(lif), b(āʾ), j(īm), d(āl), the first four letters of the Arabic script in its historical order; coined by U.S. linguist Peter T. Daniels (born 1951) in Fundamentals of Grammatology (1990); see also abugida

Words Nearby abjad

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023