alphabet
Americannoun
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the letters of a language in their customary order.
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any system of characters or signs with which a language is written.
the Greek alphabet.
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any system of characters or signs used to represent the sounds of a language.
the phonetic alphabet.
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first elements; basic facts; simplest rudiments.
the alphabet of genetics.
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the alphabet, a system of writing, developed in the ancient Middle East and transmitted from the northwest Semites to the Greeks, in which each symbol ideally represents one sound unit in the spoken language, and from which most alphabetic scripts are derived.
noun
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a set of letters or other signs used in a writing system, usually arranged in a fixed order, each letter or sign being used to represent one or sometimes more than one phoneme in the language being transcribed
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any set of symbols or characters, esp one representing sounds of speech
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basic principles or rudiments, as of a subject
Other Word Forms
- prealphabet adjective
Etymology
Origin of alphabet
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English alphabete from Late Latin alphabētum, alteration of Greek alphábētos; alpha, beta
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"You can start playing around with the much larger code. It's like adding one more letter to the alphabet."
From Science Daily
Sometimes the person calling the alphabet spoke too quickly or made mistakes.
From Literature
A major advantage of shaping photons is that it allows researchers to use high-dimensional encoding alphabets.
From Science Daily
The slide presentation Monday featured at least one use of new tech: an AI-generated image of alphabet soup, created by the firm’s treasurer, showing the many acronyms to describe complex liquidity regulations.
From Barron's
Jonah got eight more squeezes before Mr. Hodge reached the middle of the alphabet.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
