# alphabet
## English
### Etymology

Doublet of alfabeto.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈæl.fəˌbɛt/
* (uncommon) IPA: /ˈæl.fə.bɪt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Hyphenation: al‧pha‧bet

### Noun

alphabet (plural alphabets)
* The set of letters used when writing in a language.
    The Greek alphabet has only twenty-four letters.
    In the first year of school, pupils are taught to recite the alphabet.
* 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.)
** A writing system in which there are letters for the consonant and vowel phonemes. (Contrast e.g. abjad.)
* (computer science) A typically finite set of distinguishable symbols.
    Let $L$ be a regular language over the alphabet $\Sigma$.
* (India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia) An individual letter of an alphabet; an alphabetic character.
** 2002, Eugene E. Dike, African myth of creation in African form of writing, Monsenstein und Vannerdat, →ISBN, page 30:We realize the fact that the alphabet A has been used in many world scripts as a vowel with the others AEIOU.
** 2005, Satinder Bal Gupta, Comprehensive Discrete Mathematics & Structures, Laxmi Publications, page 237:There are 26 alphabets in English.
** 2007, Elangovan, P, Singapore, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 83:Tamil got 247 alphabets you know. Got two R-eh, got three L, got two N you know.
* The simplest rudiments; elements.
** 1828, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “The Constitutional History of England: From the Accession of Henry VII, to the Death of George II, by Henry Hallam”, in The Edinburgh Review, volume 18:The very alphabet of our law.
* (Internet slang, politics) An agent of the FBI, the CIA, or another such government agency.

#### Synonyms

* ABC, absey

#### Hypernyms

* (linguistics): signary

#### Derived terms

* alphabetarian
* alphabeted (adj)
* alphabetic(-al) → alphabetically, multi-, poly-, prealphabetic
* alphabetiform
* alphabetism
* alphabetitis
* alphabetize, -ise
* alphabetlike
* alphametic
* alphanumeric(-al) (by clipping)
* alphasort
* ARPAbet
* multialphabet
* prealphabet
* semi-alphabet
* unalphabeted
* Arabic alphabet (redirecting to Arabic script)
* Bengali alphabet
* Cyrillic alphabet (redirecting to Cyrillic)
* Devanagari alphabet
* Glagolitic alphabet
* Gothic alphabet
* Greek alphabet
* international phonetic alphabet
* Latin alphabet
* Morse alphabet
* Proto-Canaanite alphabet
* Roman alphabet
* alphabet agency
* alphabet block
* alphabet book
* alphabet boy
* alphabet brick
* alphabet mafia
* alphabet of desire
* alphabet oracle
* alphabet soup
* Euclidean alphabet
* finger alphabet
* Fraser alphabet (synonym of Fraser script)
* hand alphabet
* ICAO spelling alphabet
* International Phonetic Alphabet
* manual alphabet
* mixed alphabet
* movable alphabet
* moveable alphabet
* NATO phonetic alphabet
* phonetic alphabet
* phonetic spelling alphabet
* radio alphabet
* Raguileo alphabet
* Shavian alphabet
* spelling alphabet
* telephone alphabet
* Theban alphabet
* voice procedure alphabet
* weighted alphabet
* word-spelling alphabet
* Zhuyin alphabet

#### Related terms

* alphabetary (obsolete)
* alphabetician
* analphabet

#### See also

* abecedary
* abjad
* abugida
* orthography
* script
* syllabary
* writing system
* Appendix:Hebrew alphabet
* Appendix:Macedonian alphabet
* Appendix:Swedish spelling alphabet
* Category:Alphabets

### Verb

alphabet (third-person singular simple present alphabets, present participle alphabeting, simple past and past participle alphabeted)
* (rare) To designate by the letters of the alphabet; to arrange alphabetically.

#### Synonyms

* alphabetize

#### Further reading

* alphabet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

## French
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /al.fa.bɛ/
* Audio (France):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛ
* Homophone: alphabets

### Noun

alphabet m (plural alphabets)
* alphabet (set of letters considered as a group)

#### Derived terms

* alphabet latin
* alphabet phonétique international
* alphabet radio
* alphabetical language

#### Related terms

* alphabète
* alphabétique
* alphabétiquement
* inalphabète

### Further reading

* “alphabet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Middle French
### Noun

alphabet m (plural alphabets)
* alphabet (set of letters considered as a group)