Cyrillic

American  

[si-ril-ik] / sɪˈrɪl ɪk /

adjective

1. noting or pertaining to a script derived from Greek uncials and traditionally supposed to have been invented by St. Cyril, first used for the writing of Old Church Slavonic and adopted with minor modifications for the writing of Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, and some non-Slavic languages of Central Asia.

2. of or relating to St. Cyril.

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noun

1. Cyrillic script.

Cyrillic British  

/ sɪˈrɪlɪk /

adjective

1. denoting or relating to the alphabet derived from that of the Greeks, supposedly by Saint Cyril, for the writing of Slavonic languages: now used primarily for Russian, Bulgarian, and Serbian

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noun

1. this alphabet

Etymology

Origin of Cyrillic

1835–45; < New Latin Cyrillicus, equivalent to Cyrill ( us ) Saint Cyril + -icus -ic

Example Sentences

Out of the debris, an employee lifted a carbon plate marked with Cyrillic letters -- a wing fragment from a Russian drone.

From Barron's • Nov. 18, 2025

The Cyrillic script signs and Jelen Beer umbrellas indicate that this is Republika Srpska.

From BBC • Jul. 10, 2025

The Russian tricolor is omnipresent, as is the Cyrillic alphabet.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2023

Nearby, another fence bore an inexpertly painted “CCCP,” the Cyrillic acronym for “USSR.”

From New York Times • Jun. 29, 2022

He separated all the characters and ran comparisons with English, Chinese, Greek, Arabic, and with Cyrillic texts, even with Ogham.

From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer