Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or being any of the alphabets based on Glagolitic and used for certain Slavic languages, such as Russian.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to St. Cyril; specifically, noting an alphabet adopted by the Slavie peoples belonging to the Eastern Church, invented by Cyril and Methodius, the apostles of the Slavs, in the ninth century.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Denoting an alphabet devised for writing the Old Church Slavonic liturgical language, and its adaptations used for several languages of Eastern Europe and Asia; of or relating to this writing system.
  • proper noun The Cyrillic alphabet or writing system.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet and used for writing Slavic languages (Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Ukrainian, and some other Slavic languages)
  • adjective relating to or written in the alphabet used for writing Slavic languages

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Invention incorrectly attributed to Saint Cyril.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the name Cyril < Greek Κύριλλος (Kýrillos) + -ic ("adjectival suffix"). Named after Saint Cyril, who devised a predecessor to Cyrillic script, the Glagolitic alphabet.

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Examples

  • Hamburgers are pronounced gamburgers (because H in Cyrillic is pronounced like a hard “g” – never mind).

    Wanderlustress: 2004

  • Hamburgers are pronounced gamburgers (because H in Cyrillic is pronounced like a hard “g” – never mind).

    Top 10 Absurdities (so far) 2004

  • When I finished and it returned me to this page, the “p/n/g” appeared to be written in Cyrillic or something, which was cool but perplexing.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » “P/n/g” 2010

  • As his name is spelled in Cyrillic, the roman transliteration can pretty much be spelled any way that makes sense.

    White House Spellcheck FAIL. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState 2009

  • So, the plagiarists simply change the letter that looks identically in Cyrillic and Latin like “с” in the whole text.

    Global Voices in English » Kazakhstan: Educational deadlock 2009

  • They look like old Russian propaganda posters, and at first sight they seem written in Cyrillic ...

    Archive 2008-05-01 The Nag 2008

  • Your name in Cyrillic – that sounds brilliant Please be sure to show the Russian cover art when you receive it, please And the most important question: for which urban fantasy author would you turn gay/straight for?

    [INTERVIEW] Marta Acosta « Urban Fantasy Land 2008

  • It is for Russian names, shows the derivation, sex, spelling in Cyrillic, BBC-NYTimes 'easy style' of pronunciation, IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), frequency, and a native speaker pronouncing the name.

    Why I don't.... 2006

  • I have spent most of the past month learning to speak Uzbek and write in Cyrillic, right?

    Trans-illiterate Travails 2004

  • I make my way to the Metro station to find all the signs in Cyrillic, but I go with my instincts.

    Trans-illiterate Travails 2004

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