alphabet

[al-fuh-bet, -bit]

noun

1. the letters of a language in their customary order.

2. any system of characters or signs with which a language is written.

   the Greek alphabet.

3. any system of characters or signs used to represent the sounds of a language.

   the phonetic alphabet.

4. first elements; basic facts; simplest rudiments.

   the alphabet of genetics.

5. the alphabet, a system of writing, developed in the ancient Middle 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 alphabetic scripts are derived.

alphabet

/ ˈælfəˌbɛt /

noun

1. 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

2. any set of symbols or characters, esp one representing sounds of speech

3. basic principles or rudiments, as of a subject

Other Word Forms

• prealphabet adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of alphabet¹

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English alphabete from Late Latin alphabētum, alteration of Greek alphábētos; alpha, beta

Word History and Origins

Origin of alphabet¹

C15: from Late Latin alphabētum, from Greek alphabētos, from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet; see _alpha , _beta

Example Sentences

In kindergarten, the test uses letters as well as visual symbols to check for a range of skills, such as alphabet knowledge, object naming, vocabulary, and phonological awareness.

From Los Angeles Times

Five days earlier, her childhood home in the alphabet streets area of Pacific Palisades had burned to the ground.

From Los Angeles Times

He begins by describing the abstract personalities of different letters of the alphabet, referring to them as staff with “wants, needs, hopes and dreams.”

From Los Angeles Times

Hammerhead cranes at the nearby port facilities dotted the horizon as classic cars turned down E Street, and posters and T-shirts in the crowd advertised membership in an alphabet soup of union locals.

From Los Angeles Times

Ever since, he’s been skidding down the alphabet, saving even more daughters, wives, girlfriends, sons, grandsons and other people’s families, as well as a train, a mine, a battleship, an airplane and a pub.

From Los Angeles Times