ALPHABET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does alphabet mean? 

• ALPHABET (noun)
  The noun ALPHABET has 2 senses:

1. a character set that includes letters and is used to write a language

2. the elementary stages of any subject (usually plural)

  Familiarity information: ALPHABET used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALPHABET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A character set that includes letters and is used to write a language

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("alphabet" is a kind of...):

script (a particular orthography or writing system)

character set (an ordered list of characters that are used together in writing or printing)

Meronyms (members of "alphabet"):

alphabetic character; letter; letter of the alphabet (the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "alphabet"):

Armenian; Armenian alphabet (a writing system having an alphabet of 38 letters in which the Armenian language is written)

Latin alphabet; Roman alphabet (the alphabet evolved by the ancient Romans which serves for writing most of the languages of western Europe)

Hebraic alphabet; Hebrew alphabet; Hebrew script (a Semitic alphabet used since the 5th century BC for writing the Hebrew language (and later for writing Yiddish and Ladino))

Greek alphabet (the alphabet used by ancient Greeks)

Cyrillic; Cyrillic alphabet (an alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet and used for writing Slavic languages (Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Ukrainian, and some other Slavic languages))

Arabic alphabet (the alphabet of 28 characters derived from Aramaic and used for writing Arabic languages (and borrowed for writing Urdu))

phonetic alphabet; sound alphabet (an alphabet of characters intended to represent specific sounds of speech)

finger alphabet; manual alphabet (an alphabet used by the deaf; letters are represented by finger positions)

Derivation:

alphabetic (relating to or expressed by a writing system that uses an alphabet)

alphabetical (arranged in order according to the alphabet)

alphabetical (relating to or expressed by a writing system that uses an alphabet)

alphabetise; alphabetize (arrange in alphabetical order)

alphabetize (provide with an alphabet)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

ABC; ABC's; ABCs; alphabet; first principles; rudiments

Context example:

he mastered only the rudiments of geometry

Hypernyms ("alphabet" is a kind of...):

basic principle; basics; bedrock; fundamental principle; fundamentals (principles from which other truths can be derived)

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

 Context examples 

In most other languages that use the Latin alphabet, "a" denotes an open central unrounded vowel (/a/).

(A, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

In the laboratory, researchers have been able to expand the genetic alphabet to include several unnatural base pairs in DNA.

(Expanding the Genetic Alphabet, NIH)

I plainly observed that their language expressed the passions very well, and the words might, with little pains, be resolved into an alphabet more easily than the Chinese.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The letter F—had been likewise invariably brought forward, and found productive of such countless jokes, that its character as the wittiest letter in the alphabet had been long established with Elinor.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I can faintly remember learning the alphabet at her knee.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The representation of symbols in a source alphabet by strings of binary digits.

(Binary Encoding, NCI Thesaurus)

Miss Woodhouse, said Frank Churchill, after examining a table behind him, which he could reach as he sat, have your nephews taken away their alphabets—their box of letters?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The 1st letter of the Greek alphabet.

(Alpha, NCI Thesaurus)

A change in or difference between; usually represented by the 4th letter of the greek alphabet.

(Delta, NCI Thesaurus)

‘Holdernesse, 6th Duke, K.G., P.C.’—half the alphabet! ‘Baron Beverley, Earl of Carston’—dear me, what a list! ‘Lord Lieutenant of Hallamshire since 1900.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)