Dictionary Home » Dictionary Definitions » alphabet

alphabet

Listen See in Thesaurus See in a sentence

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

See alphabet in American Heritage Dictionary 4

(ălˈfə-bĕtˌ, -bĭt)

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).

(click for a larger image)

alphabet

(click for a larger image)

alphabet

See alphabet in Ologies

Alphabet

See also language; spelling; writing.

abecedarian

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.

analphabetic

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).

charactery

1. a system of symbols used to represent ideas.

2. expression by means of such symbols.

graphemics

the study of written symbols or combinations of symbols representing letters of the alphabet or single phonems.

literalism

the practice or theory of following the letter or literal sense of something written. —literalist, n.

metagraphy

the art of transliteration. —metagraphic, adj.

transliteration

the spelling of a word in one language with the alphabet of another language.

Learn more about alphabet