Cyrillic

[ si-ril-ik ]

/ sɪˈrɪl ɪk /

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adjective

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.

of or relating to St. Cyril.

noun

Cyrillic script.

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Origin of Cyrillic

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

Words nearby Cyrillic

Cyrano de Bergerac, Cyrenaic, Cyrenaica, Cyrene, Cyril, Cyrillic, Cyrillic alphabet, Cyril of Alexandria, cyrtosis, cyrtostyle, Cyrus

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use Cyrillic in a sentence

Down the highway, large letters shaped out of concrete or metal letters spelled out Donetsk in Cyrillic letters.
On the Bus: Ukraine’s Frontline Express Across the Battle Lines|Ted Phillips|September 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I promised, took the pencil and wrote my name very large in Cyrillic; he was delighted, and everyone came to see.
Through the Land of the Serb|Mary Edith Durham
But, whereas the original drawing has been labeled entirely in Cyrillic characters, these labels were now in English.
The Foreign Hand Tie|Gordon Randall Garrett
Which meant that everything was jim-dandy as long as the wiring diagrams were labeled in the Cyrillic alphabet.
The Foreign Hand Tie|Gordon Randall Garrett

The fifth was hand-lettered in the Cyrillic alphabet and illustrated with geometric diagrams.
Special Delivery|Damon Francis Knight
Nearly at the same time, 1492, they began in Servia and Herzegovina to print with Cyrillic types.
Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations|Therese Albertine Louise von Jacob Robinson

British Dictionary definitions for Cyrillic

Cyrillic

/ (sɪˈrɪlɪk) /

adjective

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

noun

this alphabet

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