aleph

American  

[ah-lif, ah-lef] / ˈɑ lɪf, ˈɑ lɛf /

noun

1. the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

2. the glottal stop consonant or, alternatively, long vowel represented by this letter.

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aleph British  

/ ˈaːlɛf, ˈɑːlɪf /

noun

1. the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet (א) articulated as a glottal stop and transliterated with a superior comma (`)

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Etymology

Origin of aleph

1250–1300; Middle English < Hebrew āleph, akin to eleph ox

Example Sentences

They analysed a single Hebrew letter, aleph, which appears more than 5,000 times in the scroll.

From BBC

Sinai, God’s voice, in midrash, was heard communally, but was so overwhelming that only the first letter, aleph, was sounded.

From The New Yorker

In that warbled register — the name of the Hebrew letter aleph came out sounding like “olive” — she delivered a soliloquy on the long catalog of extinct species with her words floating on undulating string sounds.

From New York Times

The first word of the portion has its last letter, an 'aleph,' written smaller than the other letters.

From New York Times

But I wasn’t influenced by him, I was influenced by the idea of aleph, the concept.

From New York Times