alphabet

Where “alphabet” sits in English frequency

Definition

1. 1
   The set of letters used when writing in a language.
2. 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. 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. 4
   A typically finite set of distinguishable symbols.
5. 5
   An individual letter of an alphabet; an alphabetic character.
6. 6
   The simplest rudiments; elements.
7. 7
   An agent of the FBI, the CIA, or another such government agency.

Etymology

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.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: alhpabet,allphabet,alpahbet,alphabbet,alphabett,alphabte,alphaebt,alphbaet,alphhabet,alpphabet,aplhabet,laphabet

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of alphabet - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

Frequently Asked Questions