the letters of a language in their customary order.
2.
any system of characters or signs with which a language is written: the Greek alphabet.
3.
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.
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.
[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME alphabete < LL alphabétum, alter. of Gk alphábétos.See alpha, beta]
1567 (implied in alphabetical), from L.L. alphabetum (Tertullian), from Gk. alphabetos, from alpha + beta, the first two letters of it, from Heb.-Phoen. aleph, pausal form of eleph "ox" + beth, lit. "house;" the letters so called because their shapes resembled or represented those objects. The Greeks added -a to the end of many Heb.-Phoenician letter names because Gk. words cannot end in most consonants. Alphabet soup first attested 1907.
Al"pha*bet\, n. [L. alphabetum, fr. Gr. ? + ?, the first two Greek letters; Heb. [=a]leph and beth: cf. F. alphabet.]1. The letters of a language arranged in the customary order; the series of letters or signs which form the elements of written language. 2. The simplest rudiments; elements. The very alphabet of our law. --Macaulay. Deaf and dumb alphabet. See Dactylology.
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Audio Help [al-fuh-bet, -bit] Pronunciation Key 
