alphabet
The definition of an alphabet is a system of letters of a language written or spoken in their proper order.
(noun)A, B, C and D are examples of letters of the alphabet.
See alphabet in Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun
- the letters of a language, arranged in a traditional order
- a system of characters, signs, or symbols used to indicate letters or speech sounds
- the first elements or principles, as of a branch of knowledge
Origin: LL(Ec) alphabetum < LGr alphabētos < Gr alpha + bēta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet
See alphabet in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
- The letters of a language, arranged in the order fixed by custom.
- A system of characters or symbols representing sounds or things.
- A set of basic parts or elements: “genetic markers . . . that contain repeated sequences of the DNA alphabet” (Sandra Blakeslee).
Origin:
Origin: Middle English alphabete
Origin: , from Latin alphabētum
Origin: , from Greek alphabētos
Origin: : alpha, alpha; see Alpha
Origin: + bēta, beta; see beta
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alphabet
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See alphabet in Ologies
Alphabet
See also language; spelling; writing.
a teacher or learner of an alphabet.
abecedarium
an alphabet.
alphabetarian
a person who is learning the alphabet.
alphabetics
the science of alphabets.
alphabetism
the representation of the sounds of speech in consistent graphic form.
alphabetology
the study or science of alphabets. —alphabetologist, n.
1. unable to read or write.
2. descriptive of a language written without an alphabet; that is, with a syllabary (Cherokee), in hieroglyphics (ancient Egyptian), in ideograms (Chinese) , or in pictograms (American Indian).
1. a system of symbols used to represent ideas.
2. expression by means of such symbols.
the study of written symbols or combinations of symbols representing letters of the alphabet or single phonems.
the practice or theory of following the letter or literal sense of something written. —literalist, n.
metagraphy
the art of transliteration. —metagraphic, adj.
the spelling of a word in one language with the alphabet of another language.
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