alphabet

UK: /ˈælfəbɛt/ US: /ˈælfəˌbɛt, -bɪt/ ,(al′fə bet′, -bit)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

al•pha•bet /ˈælfəˌbɛt, -bɪt/   n. [countable]

1. Linguistics the letters of a language in their customary order.
2. basic facts;
   rudiments;
   ABC's:
   the alphabet of biology.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

al•pha•bet  (al′fə bet′, -bit), n. 

1. Linguistics the letters of a language in their customary order.
2. Linguistics any system of characters or signs with which a language is written:
   the Greek alphabet.
3. Linguistics any such system for representing the sounds of a language:
   the phonetic alphabet.
4. first elements;
   basic facts;
   simplest rudiments:
   the alphabet of genetics.
5. Linguistics the alphabet, a system of writing, developed in the ancient Near East and transmitted from the northwest Semites to the Greeks, in which each symbol ideally represents one sound unit in the spoken language, and from which most alphabetical scripts are derived.

• Late Latin alphabētum, alteration of Greek alphábētos. See alpha, beta
• late Middle English alphabete 1375–1425

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

alphabet / ˈælfəˌbɛt/ noun

1. a set of letters or other signs used in a writing system, usually arranged in a fixed order, each letter or sign being used to represent one or sometimes more than one phoneme in the language being transcribed
2. any set of symbols or characters, esp one representing sounds of speech
3. basic principles or rudiments, as of a subject

Etymology: 15th Century: from Late Latin alphabētum, from Greek alphabētos, from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet; see alpha, beta