# alphabet

Pronunciation: say "AL-fuh-bet" US /ˈæl.fəˌbɛt/, UK /ˈæl.fə.bɛt/

## Noun

1. The set of letters used for writing a language.
   - Simple: All the letters used to write a language.
   - _Most children learn the alphabet before they learn to read._
   - _The Cyrillic alphabet is used to write Russian, Bulgarian, and Serbian._
2. In linguistics, a writing system whose letters stand for single sounds, strictly one with letters for both consonants and vowels, unlike syllable- or word-based scripts.
   - Simple: In language study, a way of writing where each letter stands for one sound, both vowels and consonants.
   - _An alphabet usually gets by with a few dozen letters, while a script with a sign for every word needs thousands._
   - _Linguists classify Korean Hangul as an alphabet rather than a syllabary, even though its letters are grouped into syllable blocks._
3. In computer science and mathematics, a set of distinguishable symbols, typically finite, from which the strings of a formal language are built.
   - Simple: In computer science, a set of different symbols used to build longer sequences.
   - _Every string the automaton accepts uses only symbols from the input alphabet {0, 1}._
   - _DNA sequences are often modeled as strings over a four-letter alphabet of A, C, G, and T._
4. A single letter or character of an alphabet. *(nonstandard, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Africa)*
   - Simple: One single letter, like A, B or C.
   - _Your password must contain at least one alphabet and one number._
   - _Each code has two alphabets followed by four digits._
5. The simplest, most basic elements of a subject or skill.
   - Simple: The most basic things you need to know about a subject or skill.
   - _Footwork is the very alphabet of boxing, and no good coach skips it._
   - _Her first semester gave her the alphabet of contract law: offer, acceptance, and consideration._
6. An agent of the FBI, the CIA, or a similar government agency. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Someone who works as an agent for the FBI, the CIA, or a similar government group.
   - _Nobody in the group trusted the stranger offering cheap guns, since everyone assumed he was an alphabet setting up an FBI sting._
   - _Half the people in this chat room are alphabets trying to bait someone into posting something stupid._

## Verb

7. To mark items with letters of the alphabet, or to arrange them in alphabetical order. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To label things with letters, or to put them in order from A to Z.

## Origin

The Greek letter names ἄλφα (álpha) and βῆτα (bêta), the first two in the alphabet, were joined to form Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos). Latin borrowed this as alphabētum, which became Middle English alphabete. The Greek names themselves came from aleph ("ox") and beth ("house"), Phoenician letters whose shapes began as pictures of those things and go back to Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is a doublet of alfabeto.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/alphabet (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).