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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The letters of a language, arranged in the order fixed by custom.
  2. n. A system of characters or symbols representing sounds or things.
  3. n. A set of basic parts or elements: "genetic markers . . . that contain repeated sequences of the DNA alphabet” ( Sandra Blakeslee).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The letters of a language arranged in the customary order; the series of letters or characters which form the elements of written language. See the articles on the different letters, A, B, C, etc.
  2. n. Any series of characters intended to be used in writing instead of the usual letters, as the series of dashes, dots, etc., used in the transmission of telegraphic messages.
  3. n. First elements; simplest rudiments: as, not to know the alphabet of a science.
  4. To arrange in the order of an alphabet; mark by the letters of the alphabet.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The set of letters used when writing in a language.
  2. n. 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.)
  3. n. computer science A typically finite set of distinguishable symbols.
  4. n. India One particular letter used in writing a language.
  5. v. To designate by the letters of the alphabet; to arrange alphabetically.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The letters of a language arranged in the customary order; the series of letters or signs which form the elements of written language.
  2. n. The simplest rudiments; elements.
  3. v. rare To designate by the letters of the alphabet; to arrange alphabetically.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the elementary stages of any subject (usually plural)
  2. n. a character set that includes letters and is used to write a language

Etymologies

  1. From Late Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphabētos), from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha (Α) and beta (Β), from Phoenician aleph 𐤀 ("ox") and beth 𐤁 ("house"), so called because they were pictograms of those objects. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English alphabete, from Latin alphabētum, from Greek alphabētos : alpha, alpha; see alpha + bēta, beta; see beta. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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‘alphabet’ has been looked up 3766 times, loved by 2 people, added to 29 lists, commented on 36 times, and has a Scrabble score of 15.