Alphabet: Just Alpha and Beta Stuck Together

The alphabet is the set of letters a language is written with, and the word is simply the names of the first two Greek letters, alpha and beta, joined up.

What Does Alphabet Mean?

An alphabet is the set of letters used to write a language, in a fixed order. English uses an alphabet of 26 letters, from A to Z.

The English alphabet has 26 letters.
Our teacher taught us the alphabet song when we were small.

🔊 Pronunciation

AL-fuh-bet

The stress is on the first part: AL. The letters ph say f, just like in phone. The middle part is very short and quiet, almost fuh.

🗣️ Natural Examples

Can you say the alphabet backwards? I got stuck at M.
The dictionary lists words in the order of the alphabet.
My little brother thinks the alphabet is one long word: abcdefg.
The Greek alphabet looks a little like maths homework.
There was alphabet soup for lunch, and I spelled my name with the noodles.

🛠️ How to Use It

Alphabet is a countable noun: the English alphabet, the Greek alphabet, two different alphabets.
You say a letter of the alphabet, not a letter from alphabet.
Use the with a particular alphabet: the Greek alphabet, the Russian alphabet.
In alphabetical order means in the order of the letters, from A to Z.

🤝 Common Word Partners

the English alphabet
the Greek alphabet
a letter of the alphabet
the alphabet song
in alphabetical order
alphabet soup

🌳 Word Family

alphabetical (adjective): an alphabetical list.
alphabetically (adverb): The names are listed alphabetically.
alphabetise (verb): to put things in alphabetical order. In American English it is alphabetize.

👯 Similar and Related Words

Letter: one single piece of the alphabet, such as B. The alphabet is the whole set; a letter is one item in it.
Character: any written sign, including letters, numbers and symbols. Some languages use characters instead of an alphabet.
The ABCs: a friendly way to say "the basics" of something. He is learning the ABCs of cooking.
Alphabet soup: soup with noodles shaped like letters. People also use it for a confusing mess of short names like ABC, XYZ and so on.

⚠️ Common Mistakes

An alphabet is the whole set, not one letter.
❌ English has 26 alphabets.
✅ English has 26 letters in its alphabet.

The spelling uses PH, not F.
❌ alfabet
✅ alphabet

The order is alphabetical, not "alphabet".
❌ Please write the names in alphabet order.
✅ Please write the names in alphabetical order.

💬 In a Conversation

Mia: Can you put these books in alphabetical order?
Sam: Sure. Aardvark, Bears, Cake...
Mia: These are not all about aardvarks.
Sam: I like to start strong.

🕵️ Where Does It Come From?

Alphabet is a word made from two other words. The Greek alphabet starts with the letters alpha and beta, and the word alphabet is built from their names.

English borrowed it in the 1570s, from Late Latin alphabetum, which came from Greek. Old English had its own word before that: stæfræw, meaning a "row of letters".

So the word for a whole set of letters is named after the first two letters of another set.

💡 The OddLingo Trick

Say alpha, say beta, and squash them together. You have said alphabet.

The word starts exactly the way the Greek alphabet starts.