alphabet

What it means

1. The set of letters used when writing in a language.

   The Greek alphabet has only twenty-four letters.

   1 more example

   In the first year of school, pupils are taught to recite the alphabet.

2. 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.)
   1. A writing system in which there are letters for the consonant and vowel phonemes. (Contrast e.g. abjad.)

In a sentence

The Greek alphabet has only twenty-four letters.

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Semitic*ʔalp-
2. Phoenician𐤀𐤋𐤐 (ʾlp)
3. Ancient Greekἄλφα (álpha)
4. Proto-Semitic*bayt-
5. Phoenician𐤁𐤕 (bt)
6. Ancient Greekβῆτᾰ (bêtă)
7. Ancient Greekἀλφάβητος (alphábētos)
8. Medieval Greekἀλφάβητον (alphábēton)
9. Classical Latinalphabētum
10. Middle Englishalphabete
11. Englishalphabet

From Middle English alphabete, borrowed from Classical Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos), from ἄλφα (álpha) and βῆτα (bêta), the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, Α (A) and Β (B), lowercase forms α and β. The Greek names derived from aleph, the name of the Phoenician letter 𐤀 (ʾ, “ox”) and beth, the name of the letter 𐤁 (b, “house”), so called because they were pictograms of those objects, having developed from the Egyptian hieroglyphs F1 (𓃾) and pr (𓉐). Doublet of alfabeto. Dipslaced native Old English stæfrǣw (literally "staff-row").