alphabet

• n. 字母表，字母系统；入门，初步

alpha，希腊语第一个字母，同A.bet, 希腊语第二个字母，同B.

alphabet

alphabet: [15] This word is based on the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta, standing for the whole. It derives from Greek alphabētos, via Latin alphabētum. When it first came into English, purists tried to insist that it should be reserved for the Greek alphabet, and that the English alphabet should be referred to by the term ABC (which had been lexicalized in various forms, such as abece, apece, and absee, since the late 13th century), but, like most such prescriptive demands, this was a waste of breath and ink.

alphabet (n.)

1570s, from Late Latin alphabetum (Tertullian), from Greek alphabetos, from alpha + beta. Alphabet soup first attested 1907. Words for it in Old English included stæfræw, literally "row of letters," stæfrof "array of letters."

It was a wise though a lazy cleric whom Luther mentions in his "Table Talk,"--the monk who, instead of reciting his breviary, used to run over the alphabet and then say, "O my God, take this alphabet, and put it together how you will." [William S. Walsh, "Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities," 1892]

1. The alphabet might be more rational if all the vowels came first.

如果把所有的元音列在前面，字母表可能会更为合理一些。

来自柯林斯例句

2. The modern Russian alphabet has 31 letters.

现代俄语字母表有31个字母。

来自柯林斯例句

3. Q comes between P and R in the English alphabet.

英语字母表中，Q在P和R之间。

来自《权威词典》

4. the International Phonetic Alphabet

国际音标

来自《权威词典》

5. Anybody who compiles a dictionary has to know his alphabet backwards.

无论谁编字典都得把字母表记得熟透.

来自《简明英汉词典》