Zeds

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The letter that represents the final consonant sound in the English alphabet; a term used chiefly in British English to denote the letter "Z"; a phonetic symbol in alphabetic systems representing the "z" sound
2. A designation for the last letter in the English lexicon that produces a buzzing sound; a British English word referring to the letter "Z"; a character in linguistic alphabets used for a voiced sibilant consonant
3. Identifies the concluding letter of the English alphabet with a voiced "z" sound; a British English term for the letter that Americans call "zee"; the symbol denoting the voiced alveolar fricative in phonetics

Etymology: The letter Z has a name that is almost the Greek letter's own name, passed through a chain of medieval languages. The Greek letter "zêta" came from Hebrew "zayin", the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and in Greek it picked up a vowel-ending influence from "bêta", "êta" and "thêta". Late Latin turned it into "zeta", and Old French into "zede", which entered Middle English as "zed" or "zedde" in the Middle Ages. English speakers thus said a name for Z that is a doublet of the Greek word, meaning the two forms split off from the same source. Old English used the letter Z only rarely, and when it did, it stood for a "ts" sound, as in the word "bezt", an early spelling of "best". That makes the letter's English history a quiet one before the Norman period brought French spellings in. The plural "zeds" is simply the regular plural of "zed", and "zed" is the form used in British English, while American English usually says "zee".

Synonyms: z's, letters, characters, alphabets