Association of British Scrabble Players

Culture > Linguistics > Alphabets, Scripts etc.


Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.


abcee absey the alphabet.
accent a mark over a letter to indicate differences of stress, pitch, length etc.
acute (noun) an acute ACCENT > ACUTES; (adj.) sharp > ACUTER, ACUTEST; ACUTELY.
aesc an Old English RUNE used for AE.
agma a phonetic symbol representing the sound ng, aka ENG.
ain ayin a Hebrew letter.
aitch the letter H.
alef aleph the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
alif an Arabic letter, corresponding to ALEPH.
alpha the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
alphabet a system of letters, esp when arranged in conventional set order; (verb) to ALPHABETIZE.
alphabetise alphabetize to arrange in alphabetic order.
ampassy an AMPERSAND.
ampersand amperzand the and sign &.
and (noun) the symbol AMPERSAND > ANDS.
ar the letter R.
ascender an ascending letter; a part or stroke projecting above letters such as x > ASCENDERS.
asterisk a star-shaped mark (*) used as a reference to a note; (verb) to mark with an asterisk.
ayin see AIN.
backslash the character \.
bee the letter B.
bes beth a Hebrew letter > BESES, BETHS.
beta the second letter of the Greek alphabet.
beth see BES.
bloomer a flowery initial letter.
boustrophedon writing that alternates left-right then right-left. [Gk. boustrophedon, ox-turning -- mimicking the pattern of an ox trudging back and forth in a field].
boustrophedonic having alternate lines written in opposite directions.
calligram a design using the letters of a word.
capital (of a letter) of the form or size which begins a sentence or name, upper-case.
caph kaph khaph khaf kaf a Hebrew letter.
caract a mark, a sign; an engraved or impressed character.
caret a typographical mark (^) used to note an omission.
caron another name for a hacek, an inverted circumflex.
cartouch cartouche in Egyptian inscriptions, a circle with a horizontal bar at the bottom, elongated into an oval within which king's names are written.
cedilla a mark placed under the letter c, to show that it is to be sounded like s, as in façade.
cee the letter C.
ceriph serif seriph a decorative stroke at the foot of a letter.
character a letter, a symbol; (verb) to engrave, inscribe.
cheth heh heth het khet kheth the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
chi khi the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet.
chronogram an inscription whose letters form a Roman numeral date.
circumflex a mark (^) used over a vowel in certain languages or in phonetic keys to indicate quality of pronunciation.
colon a punctuation mark (:).
comma a punctuation mark (,).
copperplate a plate of polished copper on which something has been engraved, hence a fine handwriting based on the style used in copperplate.
coronis in Greek grammar, a sign ['] sometimes placed over a contracted syllable > CORONISES.
cue the letter Q; (verb) to give an actor a cue.
cuneatic of script, wedge-shaped.
cuneiform cuniform (a script) shaped like a wedge.
curlicue a fancy twist or curl, esp. in handwriting; (verb) to adorn with curlicues > CURLICUES, CURLICUING, CURLICUED.
curlycue a fancy twist or curl, esp. in handwriting (= CURLICUE, but noun only).
cursive (a script) with flowing characteristics > CURSIVES, CURSIVELY.
daled daledh daleth a Hebrew letter.
dee the fourth letter of the alphabet; (verb) to damn > DEES, DEEING, DEED.
descender the part of the lowercase letters, such as g, p, and q, that extends below the other lowercase letters.
devanagari nagari the character in which Sanskrit is usually printed.
diacritic a mark or sign serving to distinguish different values or sounds of the same letter e.g. an acute accent.
diacritical distinctive; capable of distinguishing; serving as a diacritic.
diesis a sign used in printing to indicate a reference, a double dagger > DIESES.
digamma a letter of the Greek alphabet, which early fell into disuse.
digraph two letters expressing a single sound, e.g. ch.
digraphic of or pertaining to a DIGRAPH, two letters expressing a single sound.
diphone a shorthand sign representing a diphthongal sound.
downstroke a stroke made with a downward motion of the pen or pencil.
duckfoot as in duckfoot quote, chevron-shaped quotation marks. No DUCKFEET*.
edh eth a letter used in old English.
ef the letter F.
el the letter L.
em the letter M.
emma formerly, a signaller's name for the letter M.
en the letter N
eng a phonetic symbol.
episemon one of three extra Greek numeral-letters > EPISEMONS.
epsilon a letter of the Greek alphabet.
epsilonic relating to the Greek letter EPSILON.
es ess the letter S > ESES, ESSES.
estrangelo estranghelo a cursive form of the old Syrian alphabet.
eta a letter of the Greek alphabet.
eth see EDH.
ex the letter X; someone no longer in a previous relationship > EXES; (verb) to delete.
feh pe peh a Hebrew letter.
freehand of a script, executed by the unguided hand.
futharc futhark futhorc futhork the runic alphabet.
gamma the third letter of the Greek alphabet.
gammadion gammation a figure comprised of capital gammas; a swastika > GAMMADIA, GAMMATIA.
gee the letter G; (verb) to make a horse go faster.
gimel the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
grapheme a letter of the alphabet; all the combinations of letters that may be used to express one phoneme.
graphemic a GRAPHEME, a letter of the alphabet.
graphemics the study of systems of representing speech in writing.
grave a grave accent.
greeking representation of text as random characters just to give an overall impression.
guillemet a quotation mark.
hacek in Slavonic languages, a diacritic.
hamza hamzah in Arabic, the sign used to represent the glottal stop.
handwrite to write by hand > HANDWRITES, HANDWRITING, HANDWROTE, HANDWRITTEN, HANDWRIT.
hangul an alphabetic script for Korean > HANGULS.
hashmark the symbol #.
heh see CHETH.
het see CHETH.
heth see CHETH.
hieroglyph a character used in a system of hieroglyphic writing.
hieroglyphic a HIEROGLYPH.
hierogram a sacred or hieroglyphic symbol.
hiragana one of two sets of Japanese syllabaries, having a cursive form. Cf. KATAKANA.
homographic of a writing system, having a different symbol for each sound.
hyphen a mark of punctuation; (verb) to connect words or syllables with a hyphen > HYPHENS, HYPHENING, HYPHENED.
hyphenate hyphenise hyphenize to put a hyphen in.
hyphenic relating to a hyphen.
hyphenise see HYPHENATE.
hyphenism the practice of inserting hyphens.
hyphenize see HYPHENATE.
iconomatic using pictures to represent sounds of words.
ideogram a symbol that stands for a concept rather than a word.
ideograph a symbol in picture-writing representing the idea of a thing.
ideographic in the form of an IDEOGRAPH.
ideography the representation of ideas independently of sounds, or in an ideographic manner, as sometimes is done in shorthand writing, etc.
idiograph a private mark, a trademark.
incipit an inscription meaning 'here begins' > INCIPITS.
india in international radio communication, a code word for the letter i.
indicial of or like an INDICIUM, an indicating mark or sign.
indicium an indicating mark or sign > INDICIA or INDICIUMS.
interabang interrobang a punctuation mark {?!} designed for use esp. at the end of an exclamatory rhetorical question.
iota a Greek letter.
italic a slanting style of writing or print.
italicise italicize to print in italic characters.
izzard the letter Z.
jay the letter J.
kaf kaph see CAPH.
kana Japanese syllabic writing.
kanji the characters in Japanese orthography which originate from written Chinese.
kaph see CAPH.
kappa the tenth letter of the Greek alphabet.
katakana a Japanese writing system. Cf. HIRAGANA.
kay the letter K.
khaf see CAPH.
khaph see CAPH.
khet see CHETH.
kheth see CHETH.
khi see CHI.
koph qoph the nineteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
koppa a Greek letter, between PI and RHO.
kue the letter Q
labda lambda the Greek letter L.
lamed lamedh a Hebrew letter.
letter a written symbole representing a speech sound; (verb) to mark with letters > LETTERS, LETTERING, LETTERED.
lexigram a sign which represents a word.
lithoglyph an engraving on stone.
logogram logograph a written symbol representing an entire spoken word without expressing its pronunciation; for example, for 4 read "four" in English, "quattro" in Italian. Cf. IDEOGRAM.
longhand ordinary handwriting, as distinguished from shorthand or typing or printing.
lowercase small as distinct from capital; (verb) to make lower case.
macron the horizontal line above a vowel used to symbolize a long sound. [Gk. makron neut. of makros long.]
majuscular of letter, capital.
majuscule a capital or other large letter, especially one used in ancient manuscripts.
medial in the middle > MEDIALLY; (noun) a medial letter; a form of a letter used in the middle of a word > MEDIALS.
mem a Hebrew letter.
miniscule erroneous but acceptable for MINUSCULE.
minuscule small, insignificant; (noun) a small cursive script. [L. minusculus, rather small].
monogram a device composed of two or more letters (esp. the initials of a person's name) interwoven together; (verb) to mark with a monogram > MONOGRAMS, MONOGRAMING or MONOGRAMMING, MONOGRAMED or MONOGRAMMED.
monomark a particular combination of letters, figures etc. as a mark of identification.
mu a letter of the Greek alphabet.
nagari see DEVANAGARI.
nastalik a Persian cursive script, having long horizontal strokes and rounded characters. [Arabic naskhi, cursive script, + talik, hanging].
november in international radio communication, a code word for the letter n.
nu a letter in the Greek alphabet.
nun the fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
obelise obelize to mark with an OBELUS; especially to mark as spurious.
obelism the act of OBELIZING.
obelus a dagger sign used in referring to footnotes > OBELI.
octothorp the symbol # on a telephone or keyboard (hash mark, pound sign, number sign).
ogam ogham a 6th C. Irish writing alphabet.
ogamic oghamic ogmic of or like OGAM.
oghamist one who practises OGAM writing. N.B. no OGAMIST*.
omega a Greek letter.
omicron omikron a Greek letter.
paraph a flourish at the end of a signature; (verb) to append a paragraph to, to initial > PARAPHS, PARAPHING, PARAPHED.
pasigraphy a system of universal ideographic writing.
pe see FEH.
pee the letter P; (verb) to urinate.
peh see PE.
period a punctuation mark, a full stop; (verb) to come or bring to and end.
petroglyph an ancient rock-carving.
petroglyphy the art of carving on rocks.
phi a letter of the Greek alphabet.
phonogram a letter, character, or mark used to represent a particular sound.
phonograph a character or symbol used to represent a sound, esp. one used in phonography; also, a gramophone.
phonography a system of spelling or shorthand based on speech sounds.
phonetic phonetical of, concerning, according to, or representing the sounds of spoken language.
pi a letter in the Greek alphabet.
pictograph a picture used as a symbol for a word or phrase; a pictorial representation of values, statistics, etc.
pictogram a pictograph; a graphical representation.
pilcrow a paragraph-mark.
pinyin a system for romanizing Chinese ideograms in which tones are indicated by diacritics and unaspirated consonants are transcribed as voiced.
pling an interjection mark.
polyphon polyphone a character or vocal sign representing more than one sound, as in read, which is pronounced red.
pothook a curved or hooked stroke in handwriting, esp. made when learning to write.
psi a letter of the Greek alphabet.
punctator someone who marks something with dots, esp. applied to the Massoretes, who invented the Hebrew vowel points.
quebec in international radio communication, a code word for the letter q.
qoph see KOPH.
quipo quipu quippu a device of knotted cords, used by Incas of Peru to calculate or order information
resh a Hebrew letter > RESHES.
rho a letter of the Greek alphabet > RHOS.
romaji a system of transliterating Japanese into the Latin alphabet > ROMAJIS.
romanise romanize to write in the Roman alphabet.
ronde a script printing-type. [Fr. ronde, round].
roundhand a style of penmanship in which the letters are well-rounded and free.
rubric a heading, guiding rule, entry or liturgical direction, orig one in red ink.
rubrical colored in, or marked with, red; placed in rubrics > RUBRICALLY.
rune a letter of an ancient alphabet.
runecraft skill with runes.
runed bearing runes.
runelike like a rune.
runic pertaining to a RUNE.
sade sadhe sadi tsade tsadi tzaddi a Hebrew letter.
sagitta the middle stroke of the letter EPSILON.
samech samek samekh the 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
sampi the supposed name of a Greek numerical character representing 900 > SAMPIS.
sanserif (a typeface) without serifs > SANSERIFS.
schwa shwa a vowel sound, like "a" in alone or "e" in linen, that in English often appears unstressed.
scrawl barely legible writing; (verb) to write hastily or illegibly.
scriptory by, in or relating to writing.
scribble barely legible writing; (verb) to write hastily or illegibly.
scrive to write, esp. with copious fluency.
scytale a Spartan form of secret writing on a strip wound round a stick.
seghol segol a vowel-point in Hebrew.
semeiotic semiotic relating to signs or symbols, esp. spoken or written signs > SEMEIOTICALLY.
semeiotics semiotics a philosophical theory of signs and symbols.
semicolon a punctuation mark.
separatrix a solidus; a separating line > SEPARATRICES.
serif see CERIPH.
serifed with a SERIF, a decorative stroke at the foot of a letter. Also SERIFFED.
seriffed with a SERIF, a decorative stroke at the foot of a letter. Also SERIFED.
seriph see CERIPH.
sheva in Hebrew grammar, a point placed under a consonant to indicate absence of a vowel.
shin the twenty-first letter of the Hebrew alphabet; (verb) to climb quickly.
shorthand a system of writing used for recording speech at speaking pace.
shwa see SCHWA.
sigla (a list of) abbreviations, symbols, etc. denoting words > SIGLAS.
siglum a symbol used in a book > SIGLA.
sigma the Greek letter S.
sigmatic characterised by the Greek letter sigma.
sigmation the addition of a SIGMA at the end of a syllable.
signary a system of symbols; an alphabet.
skywrite to trace words on the sky using smoke from an aircraft > SKYWRITES, SKYWRITING, SKYWROTE, SKYWRITTEN.
stenotypy a type of SHORTHAND using ordinary characters.
stigme a dot used as a punctuation mark.
subfix a distinguishing symbol or letter written below another letter.
subindex a number or mark placed opposite the lower part of a letter or symbol to distinguish the symbol > SUBINDEXES or SUBINDICES.
subscript a number or letter written below or underneath; as, iota subscript.
superscript something written above the line.
syllabarium a syllabary > SYLLABARIA.
syllabary a system of writing composed of a set of symbols representing syllables.
tachygraphy a system of quick writing, SHORTHAND.
tau a letter of the Greek alphabet.
tav a Hebrew letter.
tee the letter T; (verb) to place a golf ball on a tee.
tet teth a Hebrew letter.
tetragram a word or inscription of four letters.
tetragrammaton a sacred word or acronym of four letters > TETRAGRAMMATONS.
theta a letter of the Greek alphabet corresponding to th in English.
thorn the Old English and Old Norse letter þ (th).
tilde the diacritical sign used over n in Spanish to indicate the sound ny.
toc telecommunications code for the letter T.
trema a DIAERESIS, two dots placed as a mark of separate pronunciation over a vowel-letter.
trigram a figure of three lines; an inscription of three letters.
trigrammatic trigrammic relating to a TRIGRAM.
trigraph three letters having one sound, as eau.
trigraphic of three letters, having one sound.
triphone a shorthand sign representing a triphthongal sound.
tsade see SADE.
tsadi see SADE.
tzaddi see SADE.
umlaut a diacritical sign placed over a vowel; (verb) to place an umlaut over > UMLAUTS, UMLAUTING, UMLAUTED.
uncial a form of writing used in Latin and Greek manuscripts; a letter in uncial script > UNCIALS; (adj.) in uncial form > UNCIALLY.
unquote to close a quotation, to mark the end of a quoted passage.
uppercase capital as distinct from small; (verb) to convert to uppercase.
upsilon a Greek letter.
upstroke an upward stroke, especially in writing.
vau an obsolete letter in the Greek alphabet.
vav vaw waw a Hebrew letter.
vee the letter V.
versal an ornamental letter at the beginning of a section, e.g. in an illuminated manuscript.
virgule a slanting line, an old form of comma, a solidus.
waw see VAW.
wen wyn wynn a RUNE having the value of modern English W.
writable that can be written.
write to form characters or symbols on a surface with an instrument > WRITES, WRITING, WROTE or (obs.) WRIT or (obs.) WRATE, WRITTEN.
writing a written composition > WRITINGS.
wye the letter Y.
wyn wynn see WEN.
xi a letter in the Greek alphabet.
xray in international radio communication, a code word for the letter x.
yankee in international radio communication, a code word for the letter y.
yod yodh a Hebrew letter.
yogh the Middle English letter representing a velar or partial fricative.
ypsilon a Greek letter.
zayin a Hebrew letter.
zed the letter Z.
zee the American form of ZED.
zeta a Greek letter.