alphabet

Etymology

From Middle English alphabete, borrowed from Late 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.

noun

1. 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.
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.)
   1. A writing system in which there are letters for the consonant and vowel phonemes. (Contrast e.g. abjad.)
3. (computer science) A typically finite set of distinguishable symbols.
   Let L be a regular language over the alphabet Σ.
4. (India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia) An individual letter of an alphabet; an alphabetic character.
   We realize the fact that the alphabet A has been used in many world scripts as a vowel with the others AEIOU. 2002, Eugene E. Dike, African myth of creation in African form of writing, Monsenstein und Vannerdat, page 30
   There are 26 alphabets in English. 2005, Satinder Bal Gupta, Comprehensive Discrete Mathematics & Structures, Laxmi Publications, page 237
5. The simplest rudiments; elements.
   The very alphabet of our law. 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
6. (Internet slang, politics) An agent of the FBI, the CIA, or another such government agency.

verb

1. (rare) To designate by the letters of the alphabet; to arrange alphabetically.