alphabet

Meaning

Noun

1. The set of letters used when writing in a language.
2. A writing system in which letters represent phonemes. (Contrast e.g. logography, a writing system in which each character represents a word, and syllabary, in which each character represents a syllable.)
3. A writing system in which letters represent phonemes. (Contrast e.g. logography, a writing system in which each character represents a word, and syllabary, in which each character represents a syllable.)
4. A typically finite set of distinguishable symbols.
5. (Hong-Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore) An individual letter of an alphabet; an alphabetic character.
6. The simplest rudiments; elements.
7. (Internet) An agent of the FBI, the CIA, or another such government agency.

Verb

To designate by the letters of the alphabet; to arrange alphabetically.

Synonyms

ABC

🔤

letter

character

ABC’s

Abc

the ABC

rudiments

consonant

elements

fundamentals

writing

ABCs

letters

first principle

rudiment

basics

first rudiment

ABC's

alphabetic

characters

primer

script

spelling book

syllabary

abc

ABC book

abecedarium

Hangul

letter of the alphabet

Korean alphabet

written characters

Translations

alphabet

Alphabet

alfabeto

alfabeto

alfabet

alfabeto

abecedario

alfabet

αλφάβητο

alfabe

alphabetum

abece

abc

🔤

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈæl.fə.bɛt/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: alphabete

In summary

From Middle English alphabete, borrowed from Classical Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos), from ἄλφα (álpha) and βῆτα (bêta), the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, Α (A) and Β (B), lowercase forms α and β. The Greek names derived from aleph, the name of the Phoenician letter 𐤀 (ʾ, “ox”) and beth, the name of the letter 𐤁 (b, “house”), so called because they were pictograms of those objects, having developed from the Egyptian hieroglyphs F1 (𓃾) and pr (𓉐).
Doublet of alfabeto.