alphabet
[al-fuh-bet, -bit]
- the letters of a language in their customary order.
- any system of characters or signs with which a language is written: the Greek alphabet.
- any such system for representing the sounds of a language: the phonetic alphabet.
- first elements; basic facts; simplest rudiments: the alphabet of genetics.
- the alphabet, a system of writing, developed in the ancient Near East and transmitted from the northwest Semites to the Greeks, in which each symbol ideally represents one sound unit in the spoken language, and from which most alphabetical scripts are derived.
Show More
Origin of alphabet
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for alphabet
Contemporary Examples
“It sometimes seems like we have more contingency plans than there are letters in the alphabet,” he claims.
Best Moment: "I heard your last name was even longer but you ate all the other letters of the alphabet."
To the left was West Pakistan, where they ruled, and spoke Urdu, and wrote in an alphabet that flowed like water under wind.
Bangladesh’s Midnight Children: Philip Hensher’s ‘Scenes From Early Life’Lucy Scholes
January 9, 2013
He falls in love with a girl named Zoe, who “seemed to come from that foreign end of the alphabet.”
When Sendak made an alphabet book, he called it Alligators All Around.
Historical Examples
Of Greek I can decipher perhaps the greater part of the Greek alphabet.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
He used to boast that he had a lawsuit for every letter in the alphabet.
Tales And Novels, Volume 4 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
She continues through the alphabet to L, when the table responds.
Echoes of the WarJ. M. Barrie
Especially in this America, where the alphabet is spread broadcast, and free of charge.
The Book of KhalidAmeen Rihani
In verity he knew it as glibly as the alphabet, for he was infinitely painstaking.
Dreamers of the GhettoI. Zangwill
alphabet
- a set of letters or other signs used in a writing system, usually arranged in a fixed order, each letter or sign being used to represent one or sometimes more than one phoneme in the language being transcribed
- any set of symbols or characters, esp one representing sounds of speech
- basic principles or rudiments, as of a subject
Show More
Word Origin
C15: from Late Latin alphabētum, from Greek alphabētos, from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet; see alpha, beta
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for alphabet
n.
1570s, from Late Latin alphabetum (Tertullian), from Greek alphabetos, from alpha + beta. Alphabet soup first attested 1907. Words for it in Old English included stæfræw, literally "row of letters," stæfrof "array of letters."
It was a wise though a lazy cleric whom Luther mentions in his "Table Talk,"--the monk who, instead of reciting his breviary, used to run over the alphabet and then say, "O my God, take this alphabet, and put it together how you will." [William S. Walsh, "Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities," 1892]
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper