f

head

f (lower case, upper case F, plural fs or f's)

Old English lower case letter f, from 7th century replacement by Latin lower case f of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚠ (f, “fe”).

The sixth letter of the English alphabet, called ef and written in the Latin script.


f

The ordinal number sixth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called ef and written in the Latin script.


A

A (upper case, lower case a, plural As or A's)

From Middle English and Old English upper case letter A and split of Middle English and Old English upper case letter Æ.
* The Old English letters A and Æ replaced the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letters ᚪ (a, “āc”) and ᚫ (æ, “æsc”), derived from the Runic letter ᚫ (a, “Ansuz”), in the 7th century.

Gregg shorthand versions Centennial, Series 90, DJS, Simplified, Anniversary, and Pre-Anniversary

Apple starts with A.

Boxer could not get beyond the letter D. He would trace out A, B, C, D, in the dust with his great hoof […]

1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

The first letter of the English alphabet, called a and written in the Latin script.


A

Item A is "foods", item B is "drinks".

The ordinal number first, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called a and written in the Latin script.


i

i (lower case, upper case I, plural is or i's)

The ninth letter of the English alphabet, called i and written in the Latin script.


i

The ordinal number ninth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called i and written in the Latin script.


i

the position of an i-dot (the dot of an i)

i-mutation, i-umlaut

The name of the Latin-script letter I/i.


o

o (lower case, upper case O, plural os or o's)

The fifteenth letter of the English alphabet, called o and written in the Latin script.

The system's Bayer designation is o Persei.

Alternative form of ο, the fifteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets, called omicron and (astronomy) used as an abbreviation of omicron in star names.


o

The ordinal number fifteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called o and written in the Latin script.


q

q (lower case, upper case Q, plural qs or q's)

The seventeenth letter of the English alphabet, called cue and written in the Latin script.


q

The ordinal number seventeenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called cue and written in the Latin script.


l

l (lower case, upper case L, plural ls or l's)

The twelfth letter of the English alphabet, called el and written in the Latin script.


l

The ordinal number twelfth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called el and written in the Latin script.


r

r (lower case, upper case R, plural rs or r's)

Old English lower case letter r, from 7th century replacement by Latin lower case r of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚱ.

The eighteenth letter of the English alphabet, called ar and written in the Latin script.


r

The ordinal number eighteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called ar and written in the Latin script.


p

p (lower case, upper case P, plural ps or p's)

The sixteenth letter of the English alphabet, called pee and written in the Latin script.


p

The ordinal number sixteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called pee and written in the Latin script.


t

t (lower case, upper case T, plural ts or t's)

The twentieth letter of the English alphabet, called tee and written in the Latin script.


t

The ordinal number twentieth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called tee and written in the Latin script.


b

b (lower case, upper case B, plural bs or b's)

The second letter of the English alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.


b

The ordinal number second, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.


k

k (lower case, upper case K, plural ks or k's)

The eleventh letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.


k

The ordinal number eleventh, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.


g

g (lower case, upper case G, plural gs or g's)

The seventh letter of the English alphabet, called gee and written in the Latin script.


g

The ordinal number seventh, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called gee and written in the Latin script.


m

m (lower case, upper case M, plural ms or m's)

The thirteenth letter of the English alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.


m

The ordinal number thirteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.


h

h (lower case, upper case H, plural hs or h's)

The eighth letter of the English alphabet, called aitch and written in the Latin script.


h

The ordinal number eighth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called aitch and written in the Latin script.


n

n (lower case, upper case N, plural ns or n's)

The fourteenth letter of the English alphabet, called en and written in the Latin script.


n

The ordinal number fourteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called en and written in the Latin script.


d

d (lower case, upper case D, plural ds or d's)

From the Old English lower case letter d, from 7th century replacement by Latin lower case d of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛞ.

The fourth letter of the English alphabet, called dee and written in the Latin script.


d

The ordinal number fourth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called dee and written in the Latin script.


s

s (lower case, upper case S, plural ss or s's)

The nineteenth letter of the English alphabet, called ess and written in the Latin script.


s

The ordinal number nineteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called ess and written in the Latin script.


c

c (lower case, upper case C, plural cs or c's)

Old English lower case letter c, from 7th century replacement by Latin lower case c of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚳ (c, “cen”).

The third letter of the English alphabet, called cee and written in the Latin script.


c

The ordinal number third, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called cee and written in the Latin script.


e

e (lower case, upper case E, plural es or e's)

The letter name is ultimately from Latin ē. Use of the Latin letter in (Old) English displaced, in whole or in part, five futhorc letters in the 7th century: ᛖ (e), ᚫ (æ), ᛠ (ea), ᛇ (eo), and ᛟ (œ).

The fifth letter of the English alphabet, called e and written in the Latin script.


e

The ordinal number fifth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called e and written in the Latin script.


F

F (upper case, lower case f, plural Fs or F's)

On several occasions, indeed, he did learn E, F, G, H, but by the time he knew them, it was always discovered that he had forgotten A, B, C, and D.

The sixth letter of the English alphabet, called ef and written in the Latin script.


F

The ordinal number sixth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called ef and written in the Latin script.


F

On a piano keyboard, the white key next to the left of each group of three black keys (see figure).


B

B (upper case, lower case b, plural Bs or B's)

From the Old English letter B, from 7th century replacement by Latin B of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛒ (b, beorc).

The second letter of the English alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.


B

The ordinal number second, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.


L

L (upper case, lower case l, plural Ls or L's)

The twelfth letter of the English alphabet, called el and written in the Latin script.


L

The ordinal number twelfth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called el and written in the Latin script.


D

D (upper case, lower case d, plural Ds or D's)

From Old English D, a 7th century replacement by Latin upper case letter D of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛞ (d, “daeg”).


G

G (upper case, lower case g, plural Gs or G's)

The seventh letter of the English alphabet, called gee and written in the Latin script.


G

The ordinal number seventh, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called gee and written in the Latin script.


E

E (upper case, lower case e, plural Es or E's)

From Middle English and Old English upper case letter E and split of Æ, EA, EO, and Œ, from five 7th century replacements of Anglo-Saxon Futhorcs by Latin letters:
* Old English letter E, from replacement by Latin letter E of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛖ (e).
* Old English letter Æ from replacement by Latin ligature Æ of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚫ (æ).
* Old English digraph EA, from replacement by Latin digraph EA of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛠ (ea).
* Old English digraph EO from replacement by Latin digraph EO of Anglo-Saxon Futhorc ᛇ (eo).
* Old English letter Œ from replacement by Latin ligature Œ of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛟ (œ).


R

R (upper case, lower case r, plural Rs or R's)

From the Etruscan letter 𐌓 (r, “er”), from the Ancient Greek letter Ρ (R, “rho”), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤓 (r, “reš”), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓁶.

The eighteenth letter of the English alphabet, called ar and written in the Latin script.


R

The ordinal number eighteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called ar and written in the Latin script.


C

C (upper case, lower case c, plural Cs or C's)


C

I keep on fairbanking the chump until he is between a poop and a sweat. The score is half a C and he's broke.

1935, Henry Louis Mencken, George Jean Nathan, The American Mercury, volume 35, page 227:

Green’s Dictionary of Slang
w:Green's Dictionary of Slang

(US, slang) One hundred dollars; a c-note.


N

N (upper case, lower case n, plural Ns or N's)

The fourteenth letter of the English alphabet, called en and written in the Latin script.


N

The ordinal number fourteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called en and written in the Latin script.


P

P (upper case, lower case p, plural Ps or P's)

Passmore. Capital P-a-double s-m-o-r-e.

1926, George Kelly, Craig's Wife, Act I, page 5:

The sixteenth letter of the English alphabet, called pee and written in the Latin script.


P

The ordinal number sixteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called pee and written in the Latin script.


T

T (upper case, lower case t, plural Ts or T's)

The twentieth letter of the English alphabet, called tee and written in the Latin script.


T

The ordinal number twentieth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called tee and written in the Latin script.


H

H (upper case, lower case h, plural Hs or H's)

The eighth letter of the English alphabet, called aitch and written in the Latin script.


H

The ordinal number eighth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called aitch and written in the Latin script.


K

K (upper case, lower case k, plural Ks or K's)

The symbol K, however, was not entirely lost; it is found irregularly in inscriptions of all dates down to the times of the empire, and regularly as an initial abbreviation of Kalendæ, Karthago, Kæso (the proper name).

1876, "C" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. IV, p. 616

The eleventh letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.


K

The ordinal number eleventh, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.


M

The ordinal number thirteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.


S

S (upper case, lower case s, plural Ss or S's)

The nineteenth letter of the English alphabet, called ess and written in the Latin script.


S

The ordinal number nineteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called ess and written in the Latin script.


Q

Q (upper case, lower case q, plural Qs or Q's)

The seventeenth letter of the English alphabet, called cue and written in the Latin script.


Q

The ordinal number seventeenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called cue and written in the Latin script.


O

O (upper case, lower case o, plural Os or O's)

"Supposing somebody sees you, with all those flowers too? Supposing somebody writes him a letter? Ooooh!" (a pure round open Tamil O.)

1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 421:

The fifteenth letter of the English alphabet, called o and written in the Latin script.


O

The ordinal number fifteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called o and written in the Latin script.


I

I (upper case, lower case i, plural Is or I's)

Old French i, from Latin ī, from Etruscan I (i).

The ninth letter of the English alphabet, called i and written in the Latin script.


I

The ordinal number ninth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called i and written in the Latin script.


/ˈwʌnˌoʊ̯ˈwʌn/

From the practice in US colleges of numbering courses, the initial (introductory) course commonly being numbered "101".

Geology 101 tells us that you can't build a reservoir on sandstone.

Ugh! Crash and burn! Next year, I’m taking flirting 101! I am so not good at this!

2003 June 22, Holly Henderson, Liz Tigelaar, “Ski Trip”, in Totally Spies!, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Samantha “Sam” (Jennifer Hale), Marathon Media, via Teletoon:

Companies sell directories, databases, reports, translation services, automatic translation software, and guidebooks for doing business away from home, which, in some cases, look much like simplified textbooks for Anthropology 101.

2004, Daniel Dor, “From Englishization to Imposed Multilingualism: Globalization, the Internet, and the Political Economy of the Linguistic Code”, in Public Culture, volume 16, number 1:

I'm taking a fascinating class all about the Hollywood Freeway. It's called 101: 101.

2017, Norm Macdonald Live, season 3, episode 11, spoken by Norm Macdonald:

However much you work out, but especially if it’s a lot, learning correct form and focusing on keeping your body safe is 101 — not just while exercising, but also how you move around day to day.

2023 March 20, Rebecca Gillam, Bridie Wilkins, “Alexandra Daddario and her PT on how she built her Baywatch bod + her 10 regular workout rules”, in Women's Health:

(chiefly US, often postpositive) Basic, beginner, starting from scratch.


a

a (lowercase, uppercase A, plural as or a's)

The letter name is from Middle English ā, from Old French, ultimately from Latin ā. Use of the Latin letter in (Old) English displaced the futhorc letter ᚪ (a) beginning in the 7th century, and partially also ᚫ (æ).

This expression is zero, for we have replaced the column of a''''s by the column of bs and hence the determinant has two columns identical.

1917, John Wesley Young, Frank Millett Morgan, Elementary Mathematical Analysis, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, page 487:

Passmore. Capital P-a-double s-m-o-r-e.

Note that with 18-point type, fifteen capital A's, twenty-five lowercase a's, and twelve 1's are obtained with one font. With this information, it is possible to refer to Table 10-1 which gives the number of characters for each letter, punctuation mark, or figure.

1974, Ervin A. Dennis, John D. Jenkins, “A Font of Type”, in Comprehensive Graphic Arts, Indianapolis, I.N.: Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc., →ISBN, page 26, column 2:

Across every sheet of paper were lines and lines of letters of the alphabet. A row of a's followed by a row of b's and so on, pages of them, like pages from a copy book, crudely formed as if from the hand of a young child.

2013, Margaret McPhee, Mistress to the Marquis, Toronto, Ont.: Harlequin Historical, →ISBN, page 249:

In the seventh grade I admired a charismatic, witty girl who had a particular way of writing her lowercase a's. After some practice, I took to writing my lowercase a's in the same fashion.

2014 February 23, Rivka Galchen, “What’s Become of the So-Called Literary Bad Boy?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2014-02-19:

The first letter of the English alphabet, written in the Latin script.


a

Latin script
Appendix:Latin script#English

The ordinal number first, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called a and written in the Latin script.


a

This piece somewhat resembles an a. On the left is a man seated on the ground, with a dog between his legs, and a large bird of prey in his hands, which appears to be biting his head.

1816, William Young Ottley, An Inquiry Into the Origin and Early History of Engraving […], volume II, London: […] John and Arthur Arch, […] by J. M'Creery, page 621:

But with some prelude of disparagement, / Read, mouthing out his hollow oes and aes, / Deep-chested music, and to this result.

1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Epic”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 2:

Letters should be spelled as follows; aes, bees, cees, dees, ees, efs, gees, aitches, ies, jays, kays, els, ems, ens, oes, pees, ques, ars, esses, tees, ues, vees, ws or dubleyuz, exes, wyes, zees.

[1906, Leigh H[adley] Irvine, “Abbreviations in General”, in The Magazine Style Code: A Manual For The Guidance Of Authors, Reporters And All Who Write, San Francisco, C.A.: Crown Publishing Company, pages 15–16:

St Lynas was chatting with a group of rebellious young college students one day, who decried the moral standards of the past. ¶ So St Lynas drew an 'a' on some paper, and asked them what it was. ¶ 'A' they said.

1993, Frank Pagden, “Teaching”, in The Gospel According to St. Lynas, Tunbridge Wells: Mitre, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

Compare Lydia's signature on some of the work orders with the warning notes. The loop through the lowercase a is similar. See what I mean?

2023, Amanda Stevens, Secret of Shutter Lake, Toronto, Ont.: Harlequin Intrigue, →ISBN, page 237:

The name of the Latin script letter A / a.