Alphabets

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈæl.fə.bɛts/

Definitions

1. A set of letters or symbols used in a writing system, representing the basic sounds of a language
2. The ordered series of characters which forms the foundation of written communication in various languages
3. A collection of letters organized in a standard sequence, utilized for composing words and sentences in literacy

Etymology: "Alphabets" is simply the plural of "alphabet", so the story belongs to the singular. Its roots lie in the first two letters of the Greek alphabet. "Alpha" and "beta" were the Greek names for those letters, and those names trace back to the Phoenician letters "aleph" and "beth". Those names meant "ox" and "house", and the letters began as pictures of those objects, developed from Egyptian hieroglyphs. Greek speakers combined the two letter names into "alphabetos", and the word passed through Latin "alphabetum" into Middle English as "alphabete". A parallel English word existed before it: "stæfrǣw", Old English for "staff-row", described the same idea of letters set out in a line. English kept both, and "alphabet" eventually displaced the older term.

Synonyms: scripts, letters