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Latin alphabet
noun
: an alphabet that was used for writing Latin and that has been modified for writing many modern languages
Examples of Latin alphabet in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Some symbols look similar to the modern Latin alphabet used in English, Spanish and several other languages.
—Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 12 June 2024
Unlike the Latin alphabet of romance languages, Greek letters are indecipherable for English speakers, making the language more difficult to learn than Romance languages such as Spanish, Italian, and French.
—Karen I. Chen, Travel + Leisure, 1 Mar. 2022
Though many Indigenous languages are primarily oral, Portuguese colonizers transcribed them using the Latin alphabet in the 16th century.
—Cameron Pugh, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 Mar. 2024
Kasem said that in cases where signs featured multiple languages all based on the same alphabet – for instance, both Welsh and English are based on the Latin alphabet – greater care was needed to differentiate them, such as by using different colors or font sizes.
—Chris Lau, CNN, 29 July 2023
New learners, including Chinese children, pick up character pronunciation using Pinyin, which uses the Latin alphabet to spell out sounds of Standard Chinese characters.
—Jamie Dickman, Popular Science, 11 Apr. 2023
Part of the reason for the confusion is that Hebrew, unlike English, doesn't use the Latin alphabet, meaning words are often subject to less-than-perfect translations.
—Justin Klawans, The Week, 18 Dec. 2022
Garfinkel said that Canaanites were the first to use letters that represented sounds in their writing system, which subsequently evolved into the Phoenician, Greek and ultimately the Latin alphabet that’s most commonly used today.
—Katie Hunt, CNN, 8 Nov. 2022
And there are practical reasons to consider, too: The Latin alphabet contains only 26 letters, which were relatively simple to mass produce as type pieces.
—Gregory Barber, WIRED, 29 Aug. 2022
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Word History
First Known Use
1823, in the meaning defined above
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Cite this Entry
“Latin alphabet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Latin%20alphabet. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.
Kids Definition
Latin alphabet
noun
: an alphabet that was used for writing Latin and that has been modified for writing many modern languages (as English)
More from Merriam-Webster on Latin alphabet
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about Latin alphabet
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