Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The use of an alphabet as a stage in the development of written language; notation by means of an alphabet.
Wiktionary
- n. An initialism: an abbreviation which is read letter-by-letter, such as "U.N."
- n. The ability to read an alphabet, a rudimentary form of literacy.
- n. Excessive reliance upon the alphabet or alphabetic structures.
- n. Discrimination on the basis of the first letter of a name.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The expression of spoken sounds by an alphabet.
Examples
“Just as pictorial phonetism was evolved from ideography, or picture-writing, so was alphabetism evolved from pictorial phonetism.”
“Even when their civilization was at its height the Babylonians never came so near to alphabetism as the Egyptians.”
“(link) they read the names of States at the Democrat Convention in random rather than alphabetical order because “alphabetism” was considered unfair.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘alphabetism’.
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this modern world
Markers of the zeitgeist, don't expect all of these to go the distance. The great majority are taken from Paul McFedries's excellent book "Wordspy"
retail therapy, compulsive shoppi..., clicks-and-mortar, dot.commer, middlescence, boomeritis, dorian graying, sandwich generation, boomeranger, full-nest syndrome, wellderly, brand equity and 226 more...
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BegtoDIFFER.com: Words dealing with t...
"Acronyms", "Initialisms", "Alphabetisms","Abbreviations" These are terms that are *supposed* to help us make sense of the confusing world of shortened names, but fail.
Most people us...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for alphabetism.
denvan Term has broader uses, but as applied to nomenclature, this is the best definition I could find:
alphabetism (plural alphabetisms)
An initialism: an abbreviation which is read letter-by-letter, such as "U.N."
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alphabetism Jul 27, 2009
sionnach Discrimination against those with names beginning with a letter that comes later in the alphabet. Dec 8, 2007